BSP advises public to check banknotes

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) yesterday advised the public to check their Philippine banknotes for identifiable security features to ascertain if these are genuine.

The central bank posted the advisory following the arrest of counterfeiters in Navotas City last year.

On Feb. 13, 2018, the Navotas City Police arrested two counterfeiters who tried to pay a fish vendor using a counterfeit P1,000 banknote at the San Roque Public Market. The fish vendor, who doubted the authenticity of the banknote, immediately called the attention of barangay officials and the Navotas City Police.

Upon inspection of the personal belongings of the suspects, counterfeit banknotes amounting to P58,000 were discovered, seized and turned over to the BSP.

These banknotes were the subject of Facebook posts concerning the circulation of counterfeit banknotes. The images were initially posted by a private netizen on Feb. 14, 2018 and reposted on the Facebook page for SSS inquiries on May 30, 2018.

Since then, the said posts have been the subject of comments from netizens on the various ways to detect fake banknotes.

On May 8, 2018, the regional trial court of Navotas City found the two accused guilty under Article 167 of the Revised Penal Code, or the criminal act of counterfeiting and knowingly putting forged banknotes into circulation, and sentenced them to imprisonment of two years, four months and one day as minimum penalty to six years as maximum penalty.

Since 2010, the BSP has arrested and filed criminal cases against 133 counterfeiters in coordination with other law enforcement agencies. This led to the confiscation of various counterfeit currencies, such as Iraqi dinar, Japanese yen, Malaysian ringgit, US dollar and several equipment and paraphernalia used for counterfeiting.

“The New Generation Currency banknote series, currently in circulation, has the latest technology security features that are easily identifiable and difficult to counterfeit. The BSP advises the public to carefully feel, look and tilt their banknotes to check for these security features,” the central bank said.

“The BSP encourages the public to report any information on currency counterfeiting to the nearest police station or law enforcement agency, for appropriate action, or contact the Currency Management Sector for assistance at tel. nos. 988-4833 and 926-5092,” it added.