HERE is the latest defense by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for its misbegotten policy to switch to polymer banknotes.
According to their latest press release, the polymer notes are so secure that counterfeit equivalents are few and far between. In fact, out of the 57,945 counterfeit banknotes recorded in 2025 (lower than the 69,925 pieces recorded in 2024), polymer currency counterfeits were only 1,358 pieces, or 2.3 percent, while the paper money counterfeits were 56,587, or 97.7 percent of the total counterfeit banknotes.
Reading the above press release could be convincing except for the other factors not mentioned that make polymer banknotes an undesired, unsustainable and unsuitable currency for our economy, our identity and our environment.
To begin with, they mention paper banknotes as the culprit, which is actually abaca paper. It is just convenient for BSP to ghost the abaca part so the public forgets their unpatriotic abandonment of abaca, our premier national fiber known the world over for its strength, resilience and durability to substitute it with polymer, which is nothing but plastic, for our traditional currency.
Another factor is cost, and industry sources who know state that 500 million polymer currency banknotes, the original order of BSP for what they said would be an “experimental run” to test whether it was acceptable to the public, cost $50 million about three years ago as against $30 million for the equivalent in abaca paper banknotes. The BSP has been gaslighting two presidents and the public all these years that polymer currency is cheaper.
Moreover, in the move to copycat First World countries that use polymer banknotes using flora and fauna of their natural environment as banknote designs, they inexplicably removed all our heroes, historical leaders and even Jose Rizal from the new currency. We already have an identity problem with our scant history taught in our public schools, now we will substitute these historical and heroic figures for animals not seen by anyone since the early 19th century at the latest. They are extinct and should not take the place of heroes and historical figures we need to remember and emulate.
Then again, what is polymer if not plastic which is as of now the most unsustainable and polluting material we are recklessly burying ourselves in? It is unsustainable and environmentally damaging. The BSP claimed at a Senate hearing that they had the technology to turn notes removed from circulation into furniture. They even showed some distinctly unattractive ponderous pieces that had no aesthetic value as furniture. Worse, it turns out they do not have the technology after all, and some months after sending off notices to laboratories and university science departments requesting a technology. This, if it materializes, will come at a cost to add to the already higher cost of polymer. It is worth knowing that polymer, despite its permanency, has a durability as currency of two years in an economy like ours which is a cash economy used by vendors, jeepney drivers, sari-sari stores. It creases, remains creased and loses the little heft it has with handling, making it look like play money and therefore suspicious and undesirable. The countries using polymer are First World countries who have a cashless economy and do not handle cash heavily like we do. Most Filipinos have no bank accounts, they survive on cash transactions.
So, the press release of BSP regarding counterfeit notes is actually irrelevant as they themselves say the counterfeit notes are 10 to every million banknotes in circulation. This may be a fact, but the numbers show it is not a national emergency. No need to make a special press release, just record it.
But then again, the press release is beyond a report on counterfeiting, it is actually meant to be a repeated defense for having introduced polymer banknotes. So, BSP demonstrates it by saying 97 percent of counterfeit banknotes are paper bills and only 2 percent are polymer banknotes. BSP has other and bigger problems that it has not solved to the satisfaction of justice or the public. There is the ghost employees case implicating two members of its vaunted Monetary Board. The public has waited for justice to be done, but it was selective. Those punished were minor employees involved, not the “big fish.”
Furthermore, counterfeiters are clever, too. They know the public detests the polymer banknotes so they do not counterfeit them though it is easier. Just buy plastic substrate, get a halogen symbol available on the internet as a pretend security feature and use inkjet. Counterfeiters know their market, and it is the paper money bills that they can profit from.
BSP, try again to defend your misbegotten polymer banknotes. So far, your score is nil as in soccer when you do not succeed to reach your goal.
