Old peso bills get reprieve of 3 months

Due to public clamor, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has given those in the possession of old peso bills another three months to exchange the soon-to-be-demonetized currency to the new series.

BSP Deputy Gov. Diwa C. Guinigundo on Thursday told reporters that the policy-setting Monetary Board recently decided to extend until June 30 the deadline to replace New Design Series (NDS) banknotes with New Generation Currency (NGC) banknotes.

Guinigundo said there was public clamor to again extend the deadline, which was moved to March 31 last December.

According to Guinigundo, 284 million pieces of NDS banknotes remain in circulation, or 8.6 percent of the total 3.3 billion pieces being used in cash transactions as of the end of February.

The NDS bills launched in 1985 will be demonetized on July 1.