The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas urged the public to refrain from acts that could cast doubt on the credibility of the local banknotes.
The regulator issued the statement following an incident when a Facebook user posted pictures of faceless P100 bills she withdrew from an ATM of the Bank of Philippine Islands branch in Quezon City.
The said posts went viral and caused several individuals to criticize the Bangko Sentral for the misprint.
“Posting photos of alleged misprinted banknotes on social media causes confusion which may negatively affect commerce… The public is also advised to be vigilant against acts of those who wish to confuse, deceive or illegally profit from posting, producing and/or selling fake ‘misprinted’ notes with no numismatic value,” the Bangko Sentral said in a statement over the weekend.
The Bangko Sentral said the alleged faceless/misprinted Philippine peso bills should be immediately brought to the BSP head office in Manila, the Security Plant Complex in Quezon City or any of its regional offices and branches nationwide to establish the authenticity of the said bills.
Bangko Sentral officials earlier confirmed that mechanical and technical error caused the printing of a number of faceless P100 bills but said it was an “isolated case.”
Bangko Sentral managing director for currency subsector Carlyn Pangilinan said in a news briefing that 33 pieces of the faceless banknotes were misprinted. She said the Bangko Sentral immediately initiated an investigation on whether these bills originated from the BSP.
“Having found these to be issued by the BSP, an inquiry was made into the printing-machine error that caused it,” said Pangilinan.
She said the error was caused by a glitch in one of the rulers of the printing machines. She said the 33 defective banknotes were what the Bangko Sentral traced and documented.
She said of the 33 defective bills, 19 pieces were already collected or returned to the BSP. She said the faceless banknotes were still legal tenders but because some of the needed security features were not there, holders of the defective bills should return them to the BSP.