MEMBERS of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG 7) seized P55,500 worth of counterfeit money from a 50-year-old man during an entrapment operation in Sitio Mahayahay, Barangay Pasil, Cebu City at 5:50 p.m. on Monday, June 5, 2023.
The suspect was identified as Mario Mangila Pazon, single, from Barangay Poblacion, Lapu-Lapu City.
The CIDG’s Operation and Detection Section immediately carried out the operation alongside the Payments and Currency Investigation Group of the Central Bank of the Philippines and Regional Intelligence Unit-Central Visayas after confirming from their surveillance activity that Pazon was involved in selling fake money.
Seized from the suspect were 41 fake 500-peso bills, 35 fake 1,000-peso bills, and genuine P1,000 in buy-bust money.
Police Corporal Jan Cyril Agonia, the case investigator, claimed that Pazon strongly denied making the false currency and said that it was merely given to him.
“Ang iyang giingon nga naa daw tighimo ana pero wala pa siya motug-an kung kinsa. Mao na among gi imbestigar pa sir kun si kinsa nang iyang giingon nga tag-iya sa fake nga kwarta,” Agonia said.
(He said somebody created it (fake money) but he made no mention of who it was. For this reason, sir, we are initiating an inquiry to identify the individual he identified as the maker).
Pazon acknowledged that he recently sold false currency in Pasil because numerous people wanted to buy it.
Additionally, he claimed that he used the fake bills to buy products, and that most of his victims were Pasil street vendors, who would simply put the cash in their pockets without checking to see if it was real or not.
He said he felt pity for the victims.
Meanwhile, the Central Visayas police have stepped up their surveillance to prevent fake peso bills from being used to buy votes during the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan election. (AYB, TPT)