ZAMBOANGA CITY — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has initiated a program to ensure coins are regularly re-circulated.
Hermogenes Buenaflor Jr., BSP-Zamboanga branch bank officer, told the Philippine News Agency that part of the program is the collection and conversion of the coins.
Buenaflor said they have so far collected 500,000 pieces of coins amounting to PhP30,000 from a school and a church.
Buenaflor said the collected coins, which included 25, 10, and five centavos as well as one centavo coin, were changed into the New Generation Currency paper bills.
He said they will re-circulate the coins to those who need it like supermarkets and pharmacies.
He said the BSP will be spending more money to produce new coins to be distributed if the coins that were already released to the public are not enough.
He said the cost of coin production are as follows: one centavo, P0.9434; five centavos, P0.4798; 10 centavos, P0.4782; 25 centavos, P0.7419; PhP1, PhP1.1825; PhP5, PhP3.4663; and, PhP10, PHP4.4128.
“The coins have been released, the problem is how it circulate(s). It’s time to re-circulate the coins so the government will not waste money in producing it,” he added. (PNA)
