Fake money proliferates in Iloilo
By JENNIFER PONSARAN-RENDON
A police operation last week confirmed earlier reports that counterfeit bills have already proliferated in the Iloilo province.
This, as operatives from the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) Provincial Intelligence Branch, together with members of the Calinog Police Station, arrested a former soldier who was in possession of fake money bills.
Elpidio Baysa, 40, a native of Purok Narra, Digos City, Davao del Sur and temporarily residing at Brgy. Anilao, Pavia, Iloilo, was arrested in an entrapment operation at the New Gallera de Calinog at Brgy. Dalig, Calinog town.
According to Inspector Jose Nemia Pamplona, PIB chief, the arrest of the suspect came just a few hours after an informant tipped them of a man who was selling fake bills at the Calinog cockpit.
After Baysa was identified, policemen conducted a test buy.
“Our police poseur buyer whispered if he has ‘ahos’,” Pamplona said explaining that ‘ahos’ is the term used for fake money.
Baysa readily handed a fake P1000 bill for P400.
At this juncture, they inconspicuously invited the suspect outside the cockpit arena.
When Baysa was frisked, he was taken with 10 fake P1000 bills and six P500 bills.
While he admitted that the money indeed belonged to him, the suspect claimed that it was just given by a certain Jojo.
Until now, police are yet to identify the person behind the proliferation and the area where these fake bills are produced.
Last Friday, a representative from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) main office already attested that the bills taken from Baysa’s possession are counterfeit.
“We deemed that there were already a considerable amount proliferated in other parts of the province,” Pamplona said.
He particularly cautioned small store owners and cockfight enthusiasts to be wary of the money paid to them.
On January 3, another man was also arrested after he bought some P200 worth of items at a sari-sari store in Barotac Viejo using a fake P1000 bill.
When the policemen were alerted, they arrested a certain Cloyd Hamot at a checkpoint in Lemery, Iloilo.
The following day, police operatives collared Nerio Catamin in an entrapment operation at Passi City.
Hamot allegedly pointed to Catamin as the source of the fake money.
Around P30,000 of fake bills were taken from the duo’s possession.
A fake P1000 bill is allegedly priced at P400 while the fake P500 is sold at P200.*
