4 nabbed for spreading fake P500 bills

Four people were nabbed by the police in a series of operations in Binondo and Sta. Cruz districts in Manila for allegedly manufacturing and distributing fake P500 bills.

Meisic police station chief Superintendent Nelson Yabut identified the suspects as Erwin Cabiling, 22; Ricky Chan, 45; Pacifico Laminato, 48; and Richard Reyes, 35, the alleged counterfeiter.

Recovered from the suspects were five fake P500 bills, 11 uncut P500 bills with identical serial numbers, a laptop, a computer printer, several pieces of blank yellow paper, assorted printing paraphernalia, a sachet of shabu and assorted drug paraphernalia.

Prior to the operation, several complainants, mostly Filipino-Chinese storeowners, reported that they had been paid with fake P500 bills, according to Yabut.

Last Wednesday evening an alert storeowner in Binondo managed to detain Cabiling after the suspect paid with a fake P500 bill. At the police station, Cabiling named the source of the fake currency, which he bought for P150 each.

He said he can exchange at least five fake P500 bills in a single night by using them to pay his tab in beerhouses and taxi fare. Later on, he began using the fake money for his purchases in Binondo stores.

Cabiling led police operatives to the Spring Hotel along Rizal Avenue in Sta. Cruz, where a policeman pretended to buy fake bills from Chan. Chan then led the police to Room 304, where they caught Reyes printing the fake money. Laminato, who was in the room at the time, admitted he was about to buy fake bills when the police barged in.

Reyes admitted owning the illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia recovered inside the room. He said he sniffs shabu to render him awake while producing the fake money at night.

Yabut turned over the counterfeit bills to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. – Nestor Etolle