DAGUPAN CITY?Of all things, the Catholic Church and operators of the illegal numbers game ?jueteng? have one thing in common?they contribute to the short supply of coins in the economy.

?We have enough coins but the problem is the uneven distribution, creating an artificial shortage,? Diwa Guinigundo, deputy governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), said yesterday.

He said the ?problem? was a result of certain factors?Mass collections, ?jueteng? bets and the Filipino practice of saving coins.

According to Guinigundo, the coins collected during Masses and as jueteng bets are not immediately turned over to banks for deposit or exchange, thus leading to an artificial shortage of coins circulating in the market.

He said jueteng operators were unloading coins at banks in small batches so as to avoid suspicion.

As for donations to the Church, people prefer to give coins than bills: ?Most of us are matipid (frugal). We don?t drop bank notes into the collection bags or boxes. Dapat may kalansing (The ringing sound is important), so we drop 25 centavos or P1, P5 and P10 coins.?

Drums of coins

Because Church personnel cannot go to the bank immediately after the Masses, the coins collected are set aside. ?Naiipon yan (These accumulate),? he said.

Guinigundo and other BSP officials were in Pangasinan yesterday for an information campaign on developments in the Philippine economy.

He recalled an incident three years ago when the central bank launched a campaign against coin hoarding and found drums of coins stored in churches.

?We have to flush the coins out of the churches,? he said, adding that there were enough coins circulating in the economy?a total of 15.6 billion coins with a face value of P16.9 billion.

This means that each Filipino keeps 169 coins, Guinigundo said. Not counting those working overseas, each Filipino has 187 coins.

And the hoarders are everywhere, Guinigundo said.

?In offices, if you open drawers, you see coins. [Office workers] don?t bring coins because these are heavy. So instead of putting these in their pockets, they leave the coins in their drawers and bring bank notes,? he said.

Break the piggy banks

Guinigundo warned hoarders of coins that these might be demonetized in three years.

He said the BSP would issue new coins and bank notes in the last quarter of 2010.

He called on Filipinos saving coins in piggy banks to deposit these in banks for recirculation, and said the BSP was encouraging banks to accept coins as deposits or change these into bills.