GenSan traders warned of fake P500, P1,000 bills

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Police authorities here warned the public, especially owners of small sari-sari stores and operators of amusement centers and night establishments, against persons passing fake paper bills.

This after General Santos City Police Office Director Sr. Supt. Alfredo Toroctocon received several complaints from small stores, restaurants and night establishments, saying they received P500 and P1,000 fake bills, believed to be paid by one of their customers.

Toroctocon said an owner of a night club here discovered the two pieces of P1,000 paper bills as "bogus" a few minutes after it was paid by a certain customer, who immediately left the club after he paid to the cashier. Similar incidents were also lodged to the office of Toroctocon.

He said the fake peso bills could not easily be discovered as bogus unless thoroughly scrutinized and passed through a money detector, usually used by big business centers like malls and banks here.

Toroctocon warned owners and operators of night joints to be cautious when accepting high bills, such as P500 and P1,000, as payment.

"Huwag kayong basta-basta tatanggap na lang ng mga P500 at P1,000 peso bills kung ibabayad sa inyo baka mapeke kayo. We are now closely monitoring its circulation," he said.

Toroctocon suspected that the proliferation of fake peso bills could possibly be the handiwork of another money counterfeit syndicate operating in the city.

He said an alleged syndicate leader and some of his men, reportedly engaged in proliferating fake US treasury, dollar and peso paper bills, were arrested here.

Seized from the suspects were 12 bundles of fake dollars amounting to $10,000, one box containing US treasury certificates amounting to $1.8 billion, five pieces of cellular phones and several peso bogus bills. — Ramil Bajo