Ex-soldier nabbed for counterfeit money

CALINOG, ILOILO  ,Philippines — A police operation last week confirmed earlier reports that counterfeit bills have already proliferated in the Iloilo province.

This came when operatives from the Iloilo Police Provincial Office’s Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB), with members of the Calinog Police Station, arrested a former soldier who was in possession of fake money bills.

Elpidio Baysa, 40, a native of Purok Narra, Digos City, Davao del Sur and temporarily residing at Brgy. Anilao, Pavia, Iloilo, was arrested in an entrapment operation at the Calinog cockpit following an info that a man was selling fake bills there.

Inspector Jose Nemia Pamplona, PIB chief, said a test buy was conducted, using a police poseur buyer who went inside the cockpit and inquired about the person from whom he could buy “ahos,” a term for fake money.

Someone pointed to Baysa who, when the poseur buyer approached, handed him a fake P1,000 bill at a price of P400, prompting the arrest.

When Baysa was frisked, he yielded with 10 pieces of fake P1000 bills and six P500 bills. He told the police that the money belonged to him, but it was just given to him by a certain Jojo.