MANILA - Peso bills bearing the signature of President Rodrigo Duterte will be released next week, the central bank said Wednesday.

The initial batch of new generation currency bills is ready for release to the general public and will be issued to banks, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said.

"These banknotes shall be issued to authorized agent banks once the approval process is completed,” he said.

No other changes in bills have been reported.

Meanwhile, the central bank also reminded the public to exchange old banknotes before January 1, 2017 at all authorized agent banks and all BSP offices and branches, as part of the demonetization process.

Starting January 1, 2017, the old banknote series will no longer have value and cannot be exchanged for the new generation series.

Under Republic Act No. 7653 or the new Central Bank Act of 1993, the central bank is authorized to replace notes of any series or denomination that are more than five years old and coins that are more than 10 years old.