The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement has confirmed that the US banknotes amounting to $3 trillion that were recovered in barangay Talaga, Argao town two months ago were counterfeit.
In his letter to Police Regional Office-7 director Ronald Roderos, deputy US ICE attaché Theodore Lopez said the federal reserves notes and certificates were confirmed to be fake by the United States Secret Service.
Lopez advised the Philippine National Police to immediately destroy the counterfeit US banknotes through incineration or just sent them to the US consular agents office in Cebu for proper disposal.
In October, a resident in Talaga, Argao recovered a chest left behind a banana grove by a Caucasian-looking man.
The chest, which is 27.3 inches long, 10 inches wide and 14.4 inches in height, has the markings of Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland, Ohio. On top of the markings was an engraved seal of the United States.
The opened compartments contained seven film clichés, 12 bank certificates, 12 redemption act certificates, 12 treasury certificates, 12 inventory lists, 12 gold reserve act certificates, 11 insurance certificates and 12 gold bullion certificates.
The fourth compartment contained 200 pieces of US federal bond interest coupons, with each coupon stating it was worth $1 billion.
Roderos and Cebu Provincial Police Office director Carmelo Valmoria already believed that the US banknotes were counterfeit because of the quality of the printing and grammatical errors found in the certificates.
The seal of the President of the United States was not even embossed on the documents, according to Valmoria. — Garry B. Lao/LPM