CAPAS, Tarlac – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) North Luzon Regional Office started its advocacy and information campaign to promote currency integrity through Clean Note and Coin Policy including ‘palit pera’ drive in Capas, Tarlac on May 28, 2022.
BSP North Luzon Regional Office Bank Officer 3 Ethel Jularbal said that familiarizing the public with security features of banknotes will protect them from receiving and circulating fake ones.
“We wanted to bring BSP closer to the people through these activities and to educate them of the don’ts in handling our banknotes such as defacing, mutilating, tearing, burning or any manner of destroying them,” she added.
In accordance with Presidential Decree No. 247, a person caught intentionally destroying banknotes may serve jail time for up to five years and can be fined up to P20,000.
A total of 182,210 unfit or mutilated banknotes were exchanged during the activity including 148 pieces of P1,000 bill; 48 pieces of P500 bill; 2 pieces of P200 bill; 48 pieces of P100 bill; 45 pieces of P50 bill; and 138 pieces of P20 bills; and coins.
Since the closest BSP branch in Tarlac is in Pampanga, Jularbal advised the participants to use the messenger platform for queries regarding banknotes.
“We are always open for your questions and queries using our Facebook messenger chatbot ‘Bob.’ This chatbot has a feature answering frequently asked questions about BSP services and banknotes and coins concerns,” Jularbal reminded.
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