Oops, Pasay operatives exclaim, red-faced, to tourist

"Wow, mali!"

This title of a popular spoof show on television, was parroted by Pasay City police agents following a false lead on alleged distribution of fake US dollars by a Belgian tourist.

The Pasay police operatives discovered their mistake after the supposed fake dollars seized from Lambert Peeters, 41, of Sint Lodewijkstraat-14, 3600 Cenk, Belgium, turned out to be genuine.

A police team picked up the Belgian tourist at the lobby of Traders Hotel in Manila at about 11 a.m. yesterday after a complaint was filed against him by the management of the Pasay-based Copacabana Apartelle.

The Copacabana Apartelle management had accused Peeters of paying them a total of $700 in "fake" US currencies in crisp 100-dollar denominations for his four-day stay.

During his investigation, Peeters maintained that what he had paid to the cashier of the apartelle were genuine dollars. He produced a withdrawal slip to prove that he had secured the dollars from a bank in his home country.

To buttress his point, Peeters challenged police interrogators to change the supposed fake dollars he had paid to the apartelle in money-changing shops.

The challenge was immediately accepted by PO2 Ferdinand Escol who proceeded to two money changing shops in Ermita. Escol was surprised when the two shops bought Peeters' dollars after examining them.

The complainant, Lyn Liwanag, cashier of Copacabana Apartelle, agreed to drop her complaint if Peeters pays in local currency the amount of P27,000.

Without a second thought, Peeters, readily paid Liwanag and left the police station.

"Na wow-mali kami doon ah (We were taken for a ride there)!" the police probers said.

This admission of error, however, was no consolation to Peeters who considered his stay for several hours inside the police investigation room "an unfortunate experience."