RP working hard vs counterfeiters — Palace

The Philippines is coordinating with other countries and working doubly hard at the local front to stop the counterfeiting of currencies, Malacañang assured yesterday.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye made the statement after United States Treasury authorities bared a "rise in the incidence" of low-level dollar counterfeiting in the country although it has not ballooned yet into a major problem in the Philippines.

"Our concerned law enforcement agencies have been making solid headway in the campaign against counterfeit notes and currencies," Bunye said.

He added that the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) "are on the job, and the series of arrests and forfeitures that have been conducted could back up our record of vigilance."

"We are also confronting this threat on the higher ground of multilateral cooperation to stop the circulation of fake money and the transit of counterfeiting syndicates across borders," Bunye said.

US authorities said expert counterfeiters are using the Philippines as a transit point for fake currency, noting that two banks have already been victimized by criminal elements whose deposits went through the banking system undetected.

The fake currency no longer passes through BSP authorities since the currency market was liberalized but Hong Kong authorities were able to intercept last year some $15,000 of what is known to authorities as "supernotes," or class A counterfeits.

US Department of Homeland Security official William Chan said Philippine authorities have had relative success in smoking out dollar counterfeiters but "supernotes" manufactured elsewhere occasionally find their way into the financial system.

According to Chan, authorities normally catch these locally made fakes before they reach general circulation but he said counterfeiting operations were serious enough to be noticed by US officials.

However, the anti-fraud and commercial crimes division of the PNP admitted that "supernotes" were found circulating within the system and remained undetected until they reached other destinations. — Aurea Calica