PHLPost issues second installment of ‘Mama Sita’ stamps

Food-loving philatelists are in for a treat as the Philippine Postal Corp. issued the second installment of special stamps featuring culinary icon Teresita “Mama Sita" Reyes.

PHLPost said the second installment, which features the work of Laguna-based artist Manuel Baldemor, comes a year after the issuance of the maiden stamps.

"(T)hree stamp designs have various produce and ingredients laid out on the foreground (while) an image of Mama Sita is shown on its background. The fourth stamp has Mama Sita standing, adorned with scenery of the countryside as its background," it said in a news release.

Supplies are limited to 120,000 printed copies worth P10 each. The special stamps will be sold at the Post Shop, Philately and Museum Division, Manila Central Post Office, and at all PHLPost offices.

The stamps are part of a five-year series of stamp issuances by PHLPost, which will end in 2017 when the nation marks Mama Sita's 100th birth anniversary.

Postmaster General Josie dela Cruz added the stamp series should immortalize Mama Sita and her pursuit of bringing Filipino cuisine to the international stage.

“Mama Sita is admirable not only in the culinary realm but also as a Filipina, a nationalist, who always believes that Filipino cuisine has a spot and a place in the international market, thus she is very much qualified to be immortalized on a stamp,” she said.

Mama Sita was born in Manila on May 11, 1917, the eldest daughter of restaurateurs who founded the Aristocrat chain.

After her children grew up, she regularly traveled around the world to learn various cuisines, and decided Filipino cuisine is among the best. — Joel Locsin/VC, GMA News