EDITORIAL - Guess who takes over when gov’t. is remiss?

In this space a few days ago was a piece decrying the shameful disregard and tolerance by government of the continued circulation of peso bills, particularly the P20 denominations, whose physical condition is no different from soiled toilet paper.

These bills are so rotten and torn it is an embarrassment as legal tender and any nation that tolerates their circulation can rightly be described as a country with no self-respect. It was thus the intention of that editorial piece to shame government into taking action.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t government that took action but a private person, and for reasons that not only were entirely his own but, even more importantly, were clearly for a purpose vastly different from what the editorial piece had intended and sought to achieve.

That private person was a fake money maker. And he was churning out not just crisp clean peso bills but crisp clean foreign currency as well. Crisp and clean money are what should be in circulation, except that in this case they were fake.

A raid by the NBI on a private residence in one of the city’s urban barangays resulted in the apprehension of the counterfeiter and the confiscation of about half-a-million pesos worth of fake money, as well as printing equipment.

It would be nonsense, of course, aside from being criminal, to replace a rotten and torn 20-peso bill with a clean and crisp counterfeit. But the fact that you probably secretly wished the counterfeit was real drives home the point that people are fed up with rotten bills.

Rotten bills not only do not speak well of us as a people, they also tend to be unfair to those who come in possession of them. That is because rotten bills tend to lose value indirectly in that people who have them may feel too embarrassed to pass them on.

Or maybe the people to whom the rotten bills are passed on to would not be inclined to accept them. And while it is illegal to refuse to accept rotten bills, they being legal tender, these people could not really be blamed. Just try being in their place.

So, before the unscrupulous, such as that counterfeiter, takes over the situation and sets in motion a solution that is not to anyone’s benefit and satisfaction, the government should take its duty of protecting the national interest seriously. Replace the rotten bills please.