I'm Giancarlo Enrico S. Pozon, a Wushu instructor, investor and Barrister... That's right, Barrister; I graduated from law school and took the Bar Exams, now I'm waiting for the results. I created this blog to make Philippine Law easy to understand for the average person. It's all about free legal advice. There are many law blogs. But the problem is that many of them are written for lawyers and law students. They use words that can't be understood by ordinary people.
Many lawyers, judges and law students consider themselves as superior to most human beings because of their knowledge of the law. It bothers me since the law is supposed to serve society. Since the law is meant to serve society as a whole, it is important that is must be understood by everybody.
This does not mean that we should all become lawyers. It means that although law is a highly specialized profession, the first duty of everybody in this profession is to make the law understandable to all; that's why all these articles are free legal advice.
Like I said, this blog is about law -but it's for the ordinary people, not the lawyers. It's for the ordinary folk so they will know what is good and bad for them, and that making them aware of the law will help us all improve society as a whole. This is free legal advice for everybody!
Your banknotes and coins are manufactured by the Central Bank. Here are things you should know about them. Some are trivial and nobody cares because they're not really that important. Some are serious and must not be ignored.
1.) Legal tender is the power to force a seller to accept the type of money offered to him when you buy his merchandise. It is not the money itself. The only money with legal tender in the Philippines is the Philippine Peso. All other kinds of money (dollars, pounds, euros, and so on...) are considered commodities that can be bought or sold (hence the term “Foreign Exchange.”)This may not apply in some other contracts since the Civil Code allows payment in other currencies under certain instances.
2.) Coins of 25-centavo value and below have legal tender only up to one hundred pesos (Php100.00) and coins valued at Php1 and above and upward have legal tender up to one thousand pesos (Php1,000.00.) In case of a mixture between both groups of coins, legal tender for both sets still applies (25-centavo coins and eblow aren't allowed to go above Php100 and Php1 coins and up can't go above Php1,000.) Seems kinda awkward but in practice, it doesn't make much sense and nobody cares (so why should you?)
3.) The Central Bank can have its bills and coins manufactured outside the country for convenience and to protect them from forgers.
4.) Central Bank Circular 416 limits interest rates on loans from non-banking entities to twelve percent (12%) per year only. So 5-6 is illegal. This interest rate also applies to court decisions and forbearance (not exercising your right to collect) of money, goods or credit. Loans with monthly interest rates from private persons are allowed 3% per month.
5.) The Monetary Board approves the designs for coins and bills.
6.) The Central Bank replaces old and damaged coins and bills with new ones on demand and free of charge. The minimum age for replacement is five (5) years for bills and ten (10) for coins. Notes and coins called in for replacement remain legal tender for one (1) year from date of call; after that year, they're no longer legal tender but can be exchanged for free and at par (and after this second year, those notes and coins not exchanged are already demonetized.) For damaged currencies, the Central Bank won't replace coins that cannot be identified or have signs that they were deliberately damaged and bills that are more than two-fifths (2/5) or forty percent (40%) damaged.
7.) Do not damage your coins! Do not vandalize your bills! They're crimes. You'll get prision correccional (6 months and 1 day to 6 years behind bars!) Even selling deliberately damaged coins will land you in jail.
8.) Counterfeiting coins, as well as their distribution, is punishable by prision mayor (6 years and 1 day to 12 years) and a P10,000 fine in case of 10c coins or higher and prision correccional and a P2,000 fine for coins lower than 10c. Prision correccional is also imposed on the counterfeiting of foreign coins, as well as a P1,000 fine. Forging bills carries with it reclusion temporal (12 years and 1 day to 20 years) and a fine of P10,000 for Philippine bills and prision mayor and a P5,000 fine for foreign bills.
9.) Art. 2. par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code says the government can prosecute, even outside the country, for forging and counterfeiting Philippine currency. This is usually done through the Philippines' embassies when they press charges against foreign counterfeiters in the countries where they live.
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