The photo circulated on social media claiming that the P500 banknote, currently featured by former Senator Benigno Aquino, would be replaced by another banknote showing a Philippine tarsier.
Statement: "Aquino left the group! An Arjay Angeles channel said in a laughing emoji on the title of the photo in an original Facebook post. The BSP will be officially released in April 2022," he continued.
"Goodbye Aquino family! This is the new design for our money now," a page called Ann Nang Nann Show said in Filipino with the same image in its post. Another page called Pepe News shared the image with the same title.
"Why is Lenny on the 500?" A page called Kamay na Bakal PH, speaking in Filipino, excavates Vice President Lenny Robredo, who defeated Bongbong Marcos in 2016.
▼ Facts
Rating: This is fake.
The image search revealed that the tarsier used in the bill was actually an illustration by Russian artist Evgeny Turaev.
A royalty-free version of the illustration is available for sale on photo gallery sites such as 123rf.com, Dreamstime, and CanStockPhoto.
Seeking comment, Benjamin Diokno, governor of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, said: "This is fake. ”
Although the photo itself is fake, other banknotes may still need to be redesigned.
An article by Rappler quoted Diokno as saying, "This is the first banknote in a new series of currencies in the Philippines that will focus on the country's rich flora and fauna." ”
This comes after the BSP unveiled a new design for the P1,000 banknote earlier this week, which features mostly a Filipino hawk and not former portraits of World War II heroes Josefa Llanes Escoda, Vicente Lim and Jose Abad Santos.
Users on social media speculated that the move could be a prelude to the eventual removal of images from the P500 bill by the late Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. and the late former President Corazon Aquino.
Other users pointed to the use of the Philippine Eagle, a symbol of extensive ties to Davao City Mayor Sarah Duterte's running mate.
Rep. Bayan Muna's party list noted that there were "obvious errors" in what he said about the new banknotes, including a misspelling of the scientific name of the Philippine Eagle.
"BSP made almost the same mistakes in 2010, so it's sad that the same mistakes are repeated. We believe these errors will be corrected before new banknotes are printed so as not to waste money or resources," Sarat said.
As of this writing, the Arjay Channel's first Facebook post on Facebook has garnered 243 reactions, 39 comments, and 199 shares on Facebook.
However, the same photo has been retweeted by other meme pages and pro-Marcos bloggers. Sad Mood's best-performing posts have amassed 18,000 reactions, 931 comments, and 4,500 shares.
According to crowdtangle, a social media monitor, 2,083 photo posts with the words "Aquino" and "500" in the title were posted in the past 7 days. The posts generated a total of 156,729 interactions.