Zarate urges BSP to correct ‘errors’ in new P1,000 bill design

House Deputy Minority leader and Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate on Saturday called out the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for the "glaring errors" in the recently released new design of the P1,000-denominated banknote.

In a statement, Zarate urged the central bank to correct these errors in the new design of the bill.

"First, the BSP should correct the scientific name of the Philippine eagle into Pithecophaga jefferyi because the one they wrote on the new P1,000 bill was Pithecophaga jefforyi," the lawmaker said.

"Second, the scientific name should also be italicized because it is in Latin and needs to be differentiated from the English language. This is one of the rules in the proper writing of scientific names," he added.

The BSP released the new design of the P1,000 bill, which will be for the limited polymer bills to be released next year. The new design features the Philippine eagle in front, replacing heroes Vicente Lim, Josefa Llanes Escoda, and Jose Abad Santos.

The target release of the newly designed P1,000 polymerized bill is in the fourth week of April 2022.

"The BSP made almost the same mistake in 2010, thus, it is lamentable that the same mistake is repeated. We trust that prior to the printing of the new notes, these mistakes will be corrected, so as not to waste funds or resources," Zarate said.

The New Generation Currency Banknotes released in 2010 also faced criticism for the incorrect way the scientific names of featured wildlife were written on the banknotes.

"We hope that the BSP will heed our call as it is quite embarrassing that a part of our official currency has mistakes that will be propagated," he said.

"That’s been corrected. A PR (press release) will be released soon," BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno told reporters when asked to comment about the errors found in the scientific name of the Philippine eagle written on the new P1,000 bill design. — DVM, GMA News