Fake P1,000 bills warning

Metro Manila police chief Deputy Director General Romeo Peña warned the public about fake P1,000 bills after the Mandaluyong City police received separate complaints involving the fake bills in transactions involving a restaurant and a taxi driver.

"The public should be careful with P1,000 bills so they are not victimized by the group behind this scheme," said Peña in a telephone interview.

The Metro Manila police chief directed Superintendent Jose Gentiles, local police chief, to dig deeper into the two cases and arrest the suspects to protect the public and small entrepreneurs from the racket.

Gentiles reported that six men entered the Rodman Kitchenette at the corner of Shaw Boulevard and L. Cruz street Tuesday, and consumed beer and food costing over P1,500.

Restaurant owner, Ely Miranda told police the six men handed over two P1,000 bills and left without waiting for their change.

Sensing something wrong, Miranda said he scrutinized the two P1,000 bills and found them to be poorly printed. He rushed after the suspects but they were already gone.

In the other case, Gentiles said taxi driver, Ronnie Rayco, 29, was also paid with a fake P1,000 bill by a male passenger at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Rayco said the suspect flagged him down at the corner of Kalayaan Ave., and C-5 Road in Makati City and asked to be brought to Nueve Febrero St., in Mandaluyong City. When the passenger alighted, he handed over a P1,000 bill for his P70 taxi fare. Rayco gave him P930 as change. However, when Rayco went to a gasoline station to gas up, he was politely told by an attendant that his P1,000 bill was fake.

Chief Inspector Efren Jugo, the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) chief of the local police suspects that the two incidents could be the handiwork of a criminal gang based in the city.