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SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union: The Criminal
Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) regional office in Ilocos
discovered fake P500 bills circulating in Baguio City and the rest
of the region.
CIDG chief Senior Supt. Marvin
Bolabola disclosed during the meeting of the Regional Law
Enforcement Coordinating Council (RLECC) in San Fernando City that
counterfeit P500 notes were discovered in a cockpit in Pangasinan
and during the Panagbenga Festival in Baguio City.
Bolabola, along with RLECC
chairman and Ilocos police director, Chief Supt. Leopoldo Bataoil,
said that there is a possibility that the fake bills are already
being used in buying votes because they have received complaints of
vote buying in La Union.
“We are warning the public to
be aware on this fake bills because they might be use to buy
votes,” Bataoil said.
Ernesto Corpuz, an officer of the
Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas regional office here, confirmed the
proliferation of fake P500 bills in Baguio and Ilocos region and
that they already traced the markings that showed the counterfeit
notes.
Corpuz showed several fake notes that carried the
distinguished words “Faith in God and faith in our people,”
which is located below the Philippine flag and above the signature
of President Arroyo.
“The wordings of a genuine P500 note should be “Faith in
our people and faith in God.” “Faith in our people” should be
first before “faith in God.” It came out around November or
December last year. While the year 2004 appears on the bills,
apparently the bills were released only recently.
BSP director Primo Quitulio said
that he already reported the matter to their head office in Manila.
Meanwhile, in Iloilo City, fake
peso bills were confiscated from a jobless man who was arrested for
vagrancy on Bonifacio Drive here early morning Wednesday.
Joval Villanueva, 45, of Barangay
Simon Ledesma, Jaro district, was immediately detained at the
lock-up cell of Police Precinct 1 (PP1).
Senior Supt. Wesley Barayuga,
Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) director, said operatives of the
ICPO Intelligence Unit found Villanueva in possession of 43 pieces
of fake peso bills in the following denominations: P1,000, P500 and
P200.
Barayuga said they received an
information that these fake money bills are being sold at lower
prices—the fake P1,000 bill at P500; fake P500 at P250; and fake
P200 at P140.
The fake money seized had similar
serial numbers. The fake P1,000 had a serial number of EZ690900;
P500, FQ490588; and P200, AE396376.
“We received information that
the fake money came from Cebu City,” Barayuga said. In
Manila, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) warned the public
against the proliferation of fake money in the provinces during the
election season.
Elfren Meneses, chief of the
NBI’s Antifraud and Computer Crimes Division, said fake money
usually proliferates during the election season because candidates
are bound to spend more on voters and their propaganda.
He said some of the fake bills
allegedly came from candidates who usually give away money while
campaigning in the provinces. He, however, said that the candidates
themselves might not be aware that they were distributing
counterfeit bills.
Only in February, three persons
were arrested in Balasan town in northern Iloilo for fake money.
They were Mario Flores of Jereos Street, La Paz, Iloilo City;
Noraida Nunagan of Majarlica compound, Taguig, Metro, Manila; and
Asia Lumabon of Cubao, Quezon City.
The suspects were arrested inside
the public market. Recovered from the suspects were 56 pieces of
fake P200 bills and P3,000 cash.
 --Eusebio
Aguinaldo and Panay News
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