Fake cash out there for vote-buying?

Here’s another reason to stay away from vote-buying politicians during the campaign season: The money they are handing out may be fake.

The Pasay City police are looking into the possibility that a recently busted syndicate producing counterfeit peso bills may have offered its services to unscrupulous politicians or their operators.

“During the election season, counterfeit money tends to proliferate since some groups may use it to buy [the votes of] constituents,” city police chief Senior Supt.  Rodolfo Llorca told the Inquirer on Wednesday.

Before dawn on Monday, a special operations team from the Pasay police, acting on a tip from an informant, arrested seven alleged members of a notorious counterfeiting ring in a buy-bust operation on Taft Avenue.

The police seized from the group a total of 80 pieces of fake P1,000 bills which were allegedly being sold for P300 each.

Arrested on Monday were Alvarez Jopee, 27; Abordo Arner, 45; Ronalyn Melico, 23; Adrian Santa Romana, 27; Allan Rivera, 25; Melvin Rambla, 41, all of Upper Bicutan, Taguig City; and Zoraida Briones, 30, of Pasay.

In a report issued by Southern Police District (SPD) director Chief Supt. Jose Erwin Villacorte, the leaders of the group were identified only as “JR” and “Roy,” both still at large and residents of Daang Hari, Taguig City.

The report said the bills were made “by Muslim traders” from Maharlika Village also in Taguig, and were sold to JR and Roy.

The SPD report said the police had monitored the group for three months, during which the suspects distributed fake bills around Metro Manila and in the Southern Tagalog and Ilocos regions.