Philippines Christmas Seals Omron

By Nemi L. Rivera

OMRON is an established Japanese manufacturer of electronic equipment and supplies. In the 1980s – 90s, it was exclusively represented in the Philippines by FEMA Business Systems, Makati City, particularly in the sale of OMRON electronic supermarket checkout registers, with terminal system to supermarket offices involved.

In November 1986, Felipe Y. Liao (Philip), owner of FEMA and also a member of PTSI’s seals committee, secured PTSI’s approval for his purchase of 1,000 sheets of TB Christmas seals, to be overprinted with the OMRON logo for use by the company and distribution to clients and friends. The overprint, impressed upon each seal, consisted of “OMROM” all caps, measuring 19mm x 3.5 mm , slightly slanted upwards, together with another finely printed line “TERMINAL SYSTEM” 17 mm x 1 mm in size, similarly slanted, plus two other horizontal lines below, “ FEMA BUSINESS SYSTEMS” (18 mm x 2 mm) / “Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati, M. M.” (19 mm x 1.5 mm). The overprint was colored differently for some years. Size did not vary too much for succeeding years, but the accompanying 3 finely printed lines were eliminated starting 1989.

The overprints were made from 1986 to 1995, with color of overprint, type of sheet and respective quantities which were overprinted, listed as follows:

Year

Color of Overprint

Type of Sheet

Quantities

in Sheets

1986

Black

Christmas Season: Slice of Life

Perforated

1,000

1987

Green

Things Philippines

Perforated and Rouletted

100 each

1988

Red

Quezon Institute Golden Jubilee

Perforated and Imperforate

Unknown

1989

Black

Fiesta Islands

Perforated and Imperforate

Unknown

1990

Dark Blue

Decade of Philippine Culture

Perforated and Imperforate

40 each

1991

Red

Filipinized Zodiac Signs

Perforated and Imperforate

Unknown

1992

Red

Native Christmas Traditions

Perforated, Rouletted and Imperforate

Unknown

1993

Red

Philippine Endangered Species

Perforated, Rouletted and Imperforate

Unknown

1994

Black

Games Children Used to Play

Perforated, Rouletted and Imperforate, with horizontal and vertical grid lines between seals

Unknown

1995

Black

Plant a Tree and Save the Earth

Perforated, Rouletted and Imperforate

Unknown

Philip Liao passed away in 1996, thereby ending this interesting overprint.

The approval to overprint TB Christmas seals with "OMRON" was covered by a typewritten note from PTSI dated November 21, 1986. Overprinting was done by a small private printer hired by FEMA, under the supervision of Mario Kho, a local stamp collector and known Chinese printing expert.