Forgery in the Philippines

About our Report My partner and I are conducting a research concerning forgeries centralized in the Philippines. This paper would focus on the many problems it may cause; effects it may have nationally; effects it may cause to an individual; and finally, the effects it may have on a community. We would also briefly discuss what exactly forgery is; the law in which specifies the penalties it would incur. Besides that we would also illuminate the importance of knowing about forgeries and how businesses, organizations and people in general prevent and/or detect forgeries. Testimonials about said forgeries would also be provided by a person who we have interviewed, Ptr. Vitaliz, Gino M., once a very successful and experienced bank manager for Equitable Bank (Now BDO, prime Bank, and Philippine Bank of Communication. Intro For the longest time forgery has always been an issue not only in our nation but also in the entire world over. In our times today we heavily depend upon creating exchangeable legitimate documents hence the very thorough and precise laws we have incurred. The Philippines, with its several run-ins with forged documents as well as currency has developed rules and regulations in order to help the public on how to handle or avoid forged items. Without said laws and penalties the public would be hard pressed to insure the safety of their finances, businesses, etc. Importance of this Knowledge Why is it important to for us to write about forgery in this paper? It is important because forgery is a widespread crime here in the Philippines. It is important because the populace should be made aware of the implications forgeries may cause and what it could mean for them. Imagine a world where documents have no proof of validity; that the transactions you handle everyday is not supported by our legal system. Would it not affect you? Whos to say that the car you have bought with your meager salary actually belongs to you? When youve signed that check that would hand over thousands of pesos to the person who forged that check in the first place you are actually handing away your money without even knowing it. The car wont belong to you. Why? because there are no legal documents to back-up your claim. It is important for one to know about forgeries in order for them to tell if the documents they are about to partake in are legal and not just a scam to con them out of their currency. Also because they need to know of

their rights and how to handle situations if ever they come into a situation that would refer to forgery. Forgery What is forgery? The Philippine Criminal Law, crimes against public interest, C1: Forgeries [Art. 161-176] basically states that forgery involves counterfeiting of currency, the falsification of documents; alteration of documents; use and/or conscious possession of false writing with the intention to commit fraud. Elements of Forgery involve a false document, signature, or other imitation of an object of value used with the intent to deceive another. Those who commit forgery are charged with the crime of fraud. Documents that can be the object of forgery include contracts, identification cards, and legal certificates. Most states require that forgery be done with the intent to commit fraud or theft/larceny. (http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/forgery.html) Examples of forgeries are: Making insertions or alterations in otherwise valid documents; Changing or deleting anything on a legal document. Appending another's signature to a document without permission; signing a doctors name for a prescription without said doctors permission. Counterfeiting; making look-alike, illegal currency in order for purchase. Penalties of forgery Penalties for forgery can be viewed upon in the Philippine Criminal Law, crimes against public interest, C1: Forgeries [Art. 161-176] and can range from imprisonment to death penalty depending upon the type or heinousness of their acts. Examples excerpted from, C1: Forgeries [Art. 161-176] are: Art. 161. Counterfeiting the great seal of the Government of the Philippine Islands, forging the signature or stamp of the Chief Executive. The penalty of reclusion temporal shall be imposed upon any person who shall forge the Great Seal of the Government of the Philippine Islands or the signature or stamp of the Chief Executive. Art. 162. Using forged signature or counterfeit seal or stamp. The penalty of prision mayor shall be imposed upon any person who shall knowingly make use of the counterfeit seal or forged signature or stamp mentioned in the preceding article.

Art. 163. Making and importing and uttering false coins. Any person who makes, imports, or utters, false coins, in connivance with counterfeiters, or importers, shall suffer: 1. Prision mayor in its minimum and medium periods and a fine not to exceed P10,000 pesos, if the counterfeited coin be silver coin of the Philippines or coin of the Central Bank of the Philippines of ten centavo denomination or above. 2. Prision correccional in its minimum and medium periods and a fine of not to exceed P2,000 pesos, if the counterfeited coins be any of the minor coinage of the Philippines or of the Central Bank of the Philippines below ten-centavo denomination. 3. Prision correccional in its minimum period and a fine not to exceed P1,000 pesos, if the counterfeited coin be currency of a foreign country. (As amended by R.A. No. 4202, approved June 19, 1965). Art. 164. Mutilation of coins; Importation and utterance of mutilated coins. The penalty of prision correccional in its minimum period and a fine not to exceed P2,000 pesos shall be imposed upon any person who shall mutilate coins of the legal currency of the United States or of the Philippine Islands or import or utter mutilated current coins, or in connivance with mutilators or importers. Art. 165. Selling of false or mutilated coin, without connivance. The person who knowingly, although without the connivance mentioned in the preceding articles, shall possess false or mutilated coin with intent to utter the same, or shall actually utter such coin, shall suffer a penalty lower by one degree than that prescribed in said articles.

Obviously there are a couple of more excerpts to be written but for the sake space consumption lets end it at Art. 164 Cases and Controversies In order to be made aware of just how widespread and actually common forgeries are here in the Philippines here are some cases solved and unsolved, that have happened in recent years. These examples would serve as our a basis for the frequency of this crime. Ex-CAAP worker held for faking airport IDs(June 14th, 2013 Nancy C. Carvajal): The National Bureau of Investigation on Friday arrested a former employee of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) for forging identifications cards that allow access to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), from his computer shop in Pasay

City. The National Bureau of Investigation on Friday arrested a former employee of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) for forging identifications cards that allow access to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), from his computer shop in Pasay City. It was the second crackdown this month against alleged forgers specializing in Naia IDs. Three weeks earlier, the NBI also cornered another man operating a photo and printing shop just a few blocks from airport for allegedly selling fake access passes and selling them for P100 each.In the latest operation, agents of the NBIs Criminal Investigation Division raided the Warrior computer shop owned by Wilbert de Leon Guerra on Apollo Street, Pasay. The bureau earlier placed Guerra under surveillance on a complaint from the Manila International Airport Authority, state operator of Naia. NBI said Guerra faced charges for falsification of public documents. Senior citizen ID forgers fall (Philippine Daily Inquirer| Wednesday, October 24th, 2012): The Makati City police have arrested two persons who are allegedly part of a group that forged senior citizens IDs that entitle holders to up to a 32-percent discount on medicines. Maricel Alonzo, 28, and Christian Vicente, 27, both of Paco, Manila, allegedly managed to buy expensive medicines worth P117,000 in one transaction from a Watsons branch on Dela Rosa Street, Makati, using falsified IDs, doctors prescriptions and authorization letters from a bogus care center for the aged. City police chief Senior Superintendent Manuel Lukban said the suspects had used the modus operandi several times to procure medicines worth P4 million. After getting the items on discount, they then sell them to a retailer at standard prices, he said. The con artists were able to earn profit of up to P1.28 million. The Watsons manager sought our help because they were losing more money to this group, Lukban said. The fraud was discovered after a check with the physicianDr. Kenard Felix of Makati Medical Plazawho purportedly signed one of the prescriptions and the persons whose names appeared on the IDs.Nia Calleja Foreign office says going after Lacson depends on DOJ(By Jerry E.Esplanada Philippine Daily Inquirer July 9th, 2011): MANILA, PhilippinesThe Department of Foreign Affairs disagrees with Malacaang that it is up to the foreign office to decide whether to file a case with the justice department in connection with its findings that Senator Panfilo Lacson used a fake travel document to return to the country after a year in hiding abroad to evade arrest in connection with the Dacer-Corbito murder case.

There is really nothing more to say, as far as the DFA is concerned, DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez told the Inquirer Saturday. We already wrote a letter to DOJ about it. It is now up to DOJ on what to do about it. The other day, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told Palace reporters its up to the DFA to pursue the issue. Valte said they would leave that up to the DFA, how they want to pursue that particular matter, because it was the one that came out with the statement. We will have to see what the departments plan would be. Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs for Administration Rafael Seguis said Thursday the DFA had done its part with respect to Lacsons controversial travel document. After investigating the matter, the DFA said the travel document Lacson presented at the Mactan International Airport on March 26 was a forgery. For the record, I have formally informed (DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima) concerning the travel document referred to (in a March 31 letter to the justice department) That speaks for itself, said Seguis. Lacson has insisted his travel papers were authentic. He claimed the travel document that I used is still with me. I have no doubt it is authentic. It was issued by a consul assigned to the country where I exited to go back to our country. Lacson backed President Benigno Aquino in the last election, but could not vote himself because he was on the run after a Manila judge ordered him arrested in connection with the murder of publicist Salvador Bubby Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, in 2000. The Court of Appeals later ruled the judge did not have enough evidence to issue the warrant for Lacsons arrest. Early this week, Felipe Cario, executive director of the DFAs Office of Consular Affairs, told reporters that Lacsons travel document was a fake. The authentic document bearing the same number was never issued by the DFA-OCA, Cario said. As to what here in the about it! that these that the you have read you could see that forgeries continue to thrive Philippines. But that does not mean we are not doing anything Everyday our systems are developing and continuing to ensure types of things do not happen, and if they do, they make sure consequences are given accordingly and justice be delivered swiftly. Countermeasure towards Forgery In our research we were able to interview a person who is an experienced bank teller, manager, and computer programmer (Ptr. Gino Vitaliz) and ask

him about the counter measures their company used to implement in order to detect counterfeit money and/or documents, decisively. With our questions and his knowledge we were able to yield an abundance of information concerning bank security. Although know this that Gino Vitaliz was actually sworn to secrecy to not divulge sensitive information about their security even until today with his retirement from his previous work. I say this so that if there are any discrepancies with information it is not for lack of trying on our groups part. According to Ptr. Gino, Concerning money, tellers are actually trained to detect and or tell apart genuine currency. Testing texture just by touch; watermarks just by sight or through UV light they are able to detect fakes from the real deal. The trick, he said, was not for tellers to look for fakes deliberately but should be trained by heart to feel the real money so that when they touch fakes they would instantly know that they are what they are. They even use machines that would only require them to insert bundles of cash and check their fakes or not by sifting through the money in rapid succession. Forgery through signature documents and checks: these types of forgery insights a different way of checking for authenticity. Checks and documents have a few tell-tale signs of being real. For one thing, checks have machine tags or numbering that uses special ink in order to secure authenticity. Checks use Barcodes not only for security but also that that particular check would need no repeating. Special signature cards both digital and physical must be signed three times for checks and documents to be stored in their databases (a bank requirement) and standard forms of banks have serial numbers. With these improvements they secure the handlings of their work and are continually improving their security Suggestions With the research we have conducted and the information our interviewee was able to give us we, as aspiring future employees, were able to suggest a few things that might improve their security. 1. First is that, we noticed that in order for banks to make sure that forgeries would not slip past their guard, they require more time to process the bills that they have with the use of automatic counterfeit checking machines. To solve this problem we could develop a system that would no longer require them to do this. Perhaps we would only require to tagging the money once and any other look-alike would no longer be accepted when being cashed into the bank or any other establishment.

2. Second, we know that the prospect of forgeries may never truly be extinguished, so we would develop a system that would automatically send for a report if ever a counterfeit would present itself. It would inform authorities of the location in which it was found and track its origin.