Map of Pulse Index, 2025

Map of Pulse Index is a world map in laser-etched acrylic glass, lit from behind. Lines run from the Philippines to the places where Filipinos go to work, among them the Gulf states, Hong Kong and the United States. In 2024, remittances reached 38.34 billion dollars, about 8.3 percent of the country’s GDP, and most of it passed through banks.

One of the etched lines is different. In 2016, 81 million dollars stolen from Bangladesh Bank was moved through accounts at an RCBC branch in Makati, changed into pesos through remittance companies, the same channels that carry workers’ wages, and moved into casinos. Most of it was never recovered. Oriente etched that route alongside the others.

The light behind the map is programmed from the monthly remittance figures the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas published for 2024 and 2025. It pulses while the figures hold steady, turns blue when they rise and red when they become volatile. The work was shown inside RCBC Plaza, the bank’s own tower.