The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) which during the term of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had to publicly apologize for the infamous “Arrovo” banknotes said that this time, the alleged P1,000 bill with an incorrect spelling of President Duterte’s name on it is not one of their own.
The P1,000 bill or the 1,000-piso banknotes that had “President Rodrigo Boa Duterte” on its face, a misspelled middle name that should be “Roa”, is not recognized as legal tender by the BSP and it did not come from its printing facility in Quezon City. The said banknote appeared in a free online encyclopedia website recently.
The BSP in a statement said it has verified the banknote and based on its serial number, it is not legal tender. “The serial number shown in the said banknote does not match any of the ones issued by the BSP for the 1000-Piso Enhanced New Generation Currency banknote,” said the BSP. The “newer” NGC banknote series was launched only in July this year.
The central bank said it will continue to work with “stakeholders including the media” in its banknotes-currency campaign and in “disseminating the correct information on the Philippine currency and in protecting the integrity of banknotes and coins.”
The BSP is the only government institution authorized and mandated by law to issue currency or notes and coins for circulation in the Philippines under Republic Act No. 7653 or The New Central Bank Act and its amended version, Republic Act No. 11211.
Legal tender money is printed at the BSP Security Plant Complex (SPC) in Quezon City. It is also where coins are minted and gold are processed.
As of end-July this year, the BSP has in circulation 4.1 billion pieces of banknotes worth P1.7 trillion, in different denominations of 1,000-piso, 500-piso, 200-piso, 100-piso, 50-piso and 20-piso. The 20-piso bill has a coin version and are currently circulated together until the BSP runs out of materials for the printing of the P20.
There are 34.9 billion pieces of coins valued at P46.3 billion in circulation.
While the BSP prints most of its banknotes in SPC, it is also outsourcing some of its printed notes, particularly the 1,000-piso and 500-piso.
In 2019, the BSP produced 65.7 percent of domestic banknotes requirements while 34.3 percent were outsourced finished banknotes. The BSP outsource currency printing as a “temporary stop-gap measure” to “meet surges in currency demand.”
The BSP first issued banknotes with President Duterte’s signature in December 2016, five months after he was sworn in as the new chief executive.
In 2005, banknotes were circulated with the misspelled name of the president at the time, President Arroyo, or the “Arrovo” bills. These banknotes were outsourced to french printer, Oberthur Technologies (Francois Charles Oberthur Fiduciare) which is one of the biggest banknotes printer in the world. Some P2 billion worth of the “Arrovo” bills or 77,908,400 pieces were circulated and these were never replaced.