A bundle of fake P200 and P500 bills was seized from two men and a woman—suspected members of a gang making counterfeit money—who were arrested at a mall in Cubao, Quezon City, on Saturday.
Superintendent Ramon Pranada, commander of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Cubao station, identified the three as Rowena Angkob, 26; Joemar Gumandil, 27; and Nasser Salicol, 24, all residents of Mindanao Avenue in Maharlika Village, Taguig City.
The trio yielded during their arrest fake P200 and P500 bills with a face value of P30,000.
Pranada said the three remain detained at the QCPD Station 10 in Kamuning pending the filing against them of charges of illegal possession of false treasury notes under Article 168 of the Revised Penal Code.
He added that the three were arrested by security guards of Farmers Plaza Mall around 4 p.m. on Saturday after one of them tried to buy some donuts with one of the counterfeit P200 bills.
The establishment’s cashier, however, immediately noticed that the bill was a fake and informed the mall’s security officials.
“At first glance, you already know the bills are fakes. These feel smooth, without the roughness of real money,” the police official said.
But once the counterfeit bills have been crumpled, these will be difficult to distinguish from the real ones, Pranada added.
When questioned by the police, Angkob said she bought the fake bills for P2,000 from a woman who visited their barangay. These were made by
Chinese nationals, she claimed.
She also told the police that she bought the fake P200 bills for P50 each while the P500 bills went for P100 each.