Saturday, March 04, 2006
Fake P1T bills ‘look like real thing’
CEBU CITY -- A peddler of counterfeit money was caught with a thick wad of fake P1,000 bills Friday after passing one to a vendor at the Barangay Labangon Public Market.
The arrest, sources from inside the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) revealed, confirms earlier information of a high-end counterfeiting syndicate in Cebu City.
The fake bills are reportedly made of high quality paper. Their texture is no different from the bills used in real currency and has the signature watermarks.
"The only giveaway is the serial number (KP282711)," said NBI Supervising Agent Rennan Augustus Oliva.
He said the manufacturer could have bleached real bills and then printed the paper over using high-tech printing equipment.
Criminal charges will be filed against Loreto Sebastian Labiano, the peddler, before the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor on Monday.
A separate charge for drug use will be filed against him as well, because he tested positive in the drug test that the NBI customarily gives to its detainees.
Labiano, in an interview at the NBI headquarters, said he gets P500 for each P1000 bill he sells.
He, however, refused to say where he gets his bills from.
Labiano was arrested at 8:30 a.m. Friday by tanods of Barangay Labangon after a certain Felisa Larrobis, a charcoal vendor, sought their assistance.
In her affidavit, Larrobis said two men, one she later knew to be Labiano, went to her stall at the public market and bought a sack of charcoal, amounting to P150.
She said Labiano handed her a P1,000 bill as payment as the other person carried the sack of charcoal to a waiting motorcycle and drove away.
She narrated that because of its large denomination, she approached a nearby stall whose owner keeps an ultraviolet light device to scan for fake bills.
Noting what she was about to do, Labiano asked for his P1,000 back and offered to pay using a smaller bill later.
But Larrobis said she did not return the money because the other person already took her sack of charcoal away.
Labiano walked away quickly. Larrobis chased him and as they neared the Labangon Barangay Hall, she called out for help from the tanods, who placed Labiano in custody.
Larrobis said she then showed Labangon Barangay Captain Felix Abella the fake P1,000 bill. It was Abella who sought the NBI's assistance. (KNR of Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(March 4, 2006 issue)
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