Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III has asked the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to stop the issuance and the production of the P1,000 polymer banknotes amid mounting complaints about its practical use as a legal tender.

In a related development, Pimentel also filed a resolution urging the Senate to conduct a legislative inquiry on BSP’s inclination to constantly change banknotes and coins at the expense of Filipino taxpayers.

Pimentel, a former Senate President, is set to be selected as the Senate Minority Leader in the forthcoming 19th Congress that opens July 25.

He said the BSP’s decision to use polymer instead of the indigenous abaca (also known as Manila hemp) in its new P1,000 bills is not only detrimental to the livelihood of local abaca producers but is also very impractical to many Filipinos who are used to storing their bills on their pockets, purses, or their tri-fold wallets.

“The issuance of these polymer bills to replace our old banknotes is absolutely absurd. Our bills should be designed in such a way that they can withstand a minimum amount of abuse like crumpling and folding. Parang gusto pa yata nila ilagay sa frame yung bills para kunwari matibay (As if they want to frame the bills as if to show they are durable). The BSP should suspend the production of these banknotes ASAP,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel said that while polymers are supposed to be sturdier than abaca, it does not have the needed flexibility to allow people to safely store their bills in their pockets, purses, money clips, or even small wallets.

Polymers are also very sensitive to chemicals, he explained.

Pimentel also expressed concern that the replacement of the abaca as a material for producing the P1,000 banknotes could impact negatively on the country’s US$ 97.1 million per year (from the exports of abaca fiber and manufactures) abaca industry.

According to the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Philippines dominates the global abaca trade as the country supplies about 87.5 percent of the world’s abaca fiber requirements, and Ecuador and Costa Rica the remaining 12.5 percent as of 2016.

In 2016, abaca was planted on 180,302 hectares with production reaching 72,000 metric tons (MT).

Pimentel also questioned BSP’s “rather arbitrary and hasty changes in our monetary design for the purpose of crafting legislation on this matter.”

In his resolution, Pimentel added that there is a need to find out who else, or what other agencies or offices are involved or consulted whenever a decision changing the monetary design of the country's legal tender is made by the BSP.

He also said it is worth asking how much it costs the Filipino taxpayers whenever banknotes and coin designs are changed.