At least P2,000 worth of faceless bills withdrawn, netizen says

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 27) — Turns out she’s not the only one.

Earla Anne, who posted on Facebook about the strange P100 bills she got from an automated teller machine (ATM), said two of her officemates also have them.

Speaking with CNN Philippines on Wednesday, Earla Anne said the ATM of the Bank of Philippine Islands in Eastwood Libis, Quezon City dispensed P100 bills with the face of the late President Manuel Roxas missing.

She and two of her officemates withdrew money from their BPI account early Christmas morning and got the shock of their lives. The bills, printed in 2017, contained serial numbers but had a blank space where the face of the former president should be.

Like Earla Anne, her officemates got the same faceless bills.  One got some worth P1,500.

It is unclear how much the other officemate received, but she still had three of the odd P100 bills.   The rest she already spent, as stores accepted the bill although they were also faded in some parts.

Earla Anne’s Facepost post showing the P400 in bills dispensed by the ATM.

All in all, the three BPI clients got at least P2,200 worth.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is investigating the incident after BPI forwarded bills it also got for verification.

“If genuine, those can be replaced by their bank or BSP. Right now we’re still investigating these claims,” BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla said in a text message. “It seems very isolated at this stage though.”

BPI is also conducting its own probe and checking other ATMs within the vicinity of Eastwood.

“We’re checking the serial numbers of the posted faceless bills and we’re trying to track saang batch siya nadeliver… Our operations team had been at work, checking the batches and affected ATM,” said Owen Cammayo, head of corporate affairs and communications of BPI.

The BPI advised customers who get the same faceless bills to report immediately to the bank or the BSP.

“All customers, who for some reason, get hold of a hundred-peso faceless bill, hold on to it first then let’s wait for the BSP to do their own verification, then we’ll do the appropriate action to replace them,” Cammayo said.

Owen Cammayo, BPI’s head of corporate affairs, said all bills in the bank’s ATMs come from the BSP, but a third-party service provider loads the bills into the machines.

CNN Philippines’ Eimor Santos contributed to this report.