One of the most unforgettable pieces of evidence presented of ill-gotten wealth from corruption in the flood-control projects was a photograph of wads upon wads upon wads of ?1,000 bills arranged like blue building blocks on top of a table in a DPWH regional office.
Yes, we all saw it; a physical representation of the wealth that most of us will never earn in our lifetime, or even two or three, and the insatiable greed of some people.
This led to proposals to demonetize ?1,000 and ?500 bills to curb corruption; they assume it will make it inconvenient for contractors to pay government officials or politicians if they don’t have ?1,000 and ?500 bills.
Sure, it sounds like a good idea, but the way we see it, it will be the public and those who don’t engage in corruption who will be more inconvenienced by such a move.
For this piece, let’s limit our argument to the ?1,000 bill only. Let’s be honest about something first; the peso isn’t exactly a strong currency taking into consideration other currencies around the world, and daily transactions here amounting to thousands of pesos are becoming more common.
We are talking about eating out, going for groceries, or even buying fruits in the local talipapa, etcetera. Because of inflation, the ?1,000 bill is no longer as rare as it used to be and is becoming more part of everyday transactions.
So if ?1,000 bills are to be done away with, people will have to bring in their wallets 10 ?100 bills or 20 ?50 bills, or a combination of both denominations. This isn’t only inconvenient, it’s also impractical. It will be like the days of World War II where Filipinos had to bring bags of Japanese ‘Mickey Mouse’ money because of its low value.
Let’s also not forget that, like everyday purchases, transactions involving corruption can be done via bank transfer or other cashless means. No physical cash actually has to change hands for a transaction to be made. As they say: If there’s a will, there’s a way. So why target the bills of larger denominations?
There are many ways to curb corruption, but demonetizing ?1,000 and ?500 bills isn’t the way to go and may cause more harm than good.