US bonds seem to be worthless

Higher officials just couldn’t wait until Monday, as earlier announced, to open a chest full of bank notes worth a whooping three trillion US dollars.

Yesterday they opened again, in the presence of media, a bronze-plated chest to see what police and residents in Argao said a mysterious half-naked Caucasion man in a red Mitsubishi Pajero had secretly left in the middle of a banana grove.

The contents were intact, sheaves of US treasury notes worth a staggering three trillion dollars.

But only the face value of the notes were staggering. Their true worth apparently cannot even buy their own weight.

Police regional director Ronald Roderos, provincial police director Carmelo Valmoria, and DILG undersecretary Lito Ruiz all took no more than a cursory look at the documents to become suspicious about their authenticity.

Nevertheless, all three refused to make a categorical statement that the bank notes were spurious, saying they did not have the expertise to make that determination.

But some of the notes clearly did not need an expert to arouse suspicion as to their authenticity. Discrepancies and contradictions in the text and figures on some of them were a dead giveaway as to their true worth.

Some of the treasury notes bore values of one million US dollars in figures even if their corresponding values in words said one billion US dollars.      

The officials all agreed on one thing, however, and it is that the treasury certificates were there for a sinister purpose, perhaps for use in a huge scam involving unsuspecting investors and money speculators.

Ruiz said whoever owned the chest clearly intended to dupe people with certificates.

Last Saturday, residents in Talaga, Argao saw a shirtless Caucasian man come out of a red Mitsubishi Pajero carrying the chest and depositing it inside a banana grove. The man then hurriedly went back to his car and sped toward the south.

The residents at first tried to open the box but changed their minds in fear it may contain some explosives.

They instead reported the matter to barangay officials who, in turn, notified the police.

Upon initial inspection, it was found that the chest had a total of 13 compartments, with two of them partially open. It was from the two open compartments that the finders got an inkling of what they had stumbled upon.

One document summed up the purported worth of all the certificated, placing it at three trillion US dollars.

One of the compartments contained a small brass cylinder inside of which was a document purporting to be a copy of the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was the peace treaty ending World War I and was signed by the Allies and Germany in 1918 at Versailles near Paris.

The other compartment contained 12 bank certificates, 12 Gold Reserve Act certificates, 11 insurance certificates, and 11 gold bullion certificates.

Also found were 200 US Federal bond interest coupons. It was these coupons that had discrepancies in their face values, with the amount in figures differing from the amount stated in words.

At the center of the bond was written: “ This coupon for one billion dollars shall be payable on the last day of the 18th month of the 35th year of the United States of America or any of its Federal Reserve Bank- designated agencies in America. “ But the figure on top of the words clearly showed only $1,000,000. A replica of a dollar bill showing that amount also had the picture of George Washington, who is supposed to appear only on one dollar denominations.

The words referring to the “ 18th month of the 35th year “ are also perplexing as to what they meant.

If they meant anything, in the context for which they were written, it was clear no payment was intended to be made at all.

Roderos said the police are now coordinating with US authorities for help on the matter.

He also warned the public not to be gullible and fall for get-rich schemes being hatched by the unscrupulous.

“ Our people should be wary of this because what these people are doing is preying on the greed of some people, “ Roderos said.

Ruiz, on the other hand, said that in the remote possibility that the documents are found to be real, the government can get a share from the find, using the principle “ finders keepers. “ “ Part of the amount could be used for additional infrastructures and services for the people and in the creation of more jobs for the unemployed.

As a matter of trivia — if the three trillion dollars were valued in today’s peso, it would be worth 135 trillion pesos.

A few days ago, the House passed on second reading the annual national budget for 2008 amounting to P1.3 trillion.  — (/JST)