MANILA, Philippines (UPDATE) – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has passed a proposal to the Office of the President seeking to adjust the color of the P100 bill to address the confusion on its similarity with the P1,000 bill.
Under the proposal, the BSP seeks to make the color mauve more vibrant and the blue less distinct on the P100 bill.
BSP deputy director for currency issue and integrity Maja Gratia Malic advised the public to familiarize themselves with the currencies, adding that the numerical denomination printed on the new generation currency series were enlarged to help consumers distinguish the bills.
In public markets where peso bills pass from one hand to another quickly, the confusion is more frequent.
Some vendors at the Visayas Ave. market admitted that they sometimes give P100 bill as change instead of P1,000 because of the similarity.
In dimly-lit areas of the market, the vendors said they sometimes become victims themselves of buyers who pay them with a P100 bill for goods worth P1,000.
There is also confusion between the P20 and P50 bills, but the BSP has yet to make plans for any adjustments.
According to Malic, there will be minimal cost on the adjustment process since only the colors will be adjusted and there is no need for additional raw materials.
The BSP Monetary Board has approved the proposal is now awaiting the President's approval to start the process.
Less than 50 percent of the old face peso bills are currently out in the market. The new bills came out in 2010.
The BSP said it has plans to demonetize old peso bills, but no timeline has been set.
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