Loose Change Leads to "Economic Sabotage"?

Back in 2008, customs officers here in the Philippines seized 18 tonnes of Filipino coins set to be illegally shipped to South Korea for scrap metal. According to officials, the container held one peso coins amounting to around 30 million pesos, and was going to be shipped to Pusan in order for the coins to be melted down for their nickel and copper content. Nickel and copper are metals used in the manufacture of computer chips. Apparently, this process was a more economical measure as compared to mining for those metals.

In 2008, National Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director for Intelligence Services Ruel Lasala was quoted as saying, "Some unscrupulous groups apparently asked banks or other organizations to change their bills into coins. They later sold these to prospective buyers, who would then smuggle the coins out of the country. These shipments were often misdeclared as metal scraps."

It’s ironic how while most people try to get rid of the coins weighing down their wallets, others hoard them in order to smuggle them out of the country. Yet another crime brought on by technology.

[end blog no. 14; images by louweird and reyneil, respectively]