The Palace assures that the 1,000 peso bills with the image of the three World War II martyrs "will not be demonetized."

"The P1,000 bills that feature our three martyrs and heroes will not be demonetized. So it is clear in the explanation of BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas), through BSP Governor (Benjamin) Diokno," Acting Presidential Spokesman Karlo Nograles said in a virtual briefing on Tuesday.

Nograles said the new P1,000 bills or the polymer series, will only be part of the test circulation.

"The new P1,000 bill featuring the Philippine Eagle, our polymer series which was made by the BSP as a test circulation to validate if it is true that polymer is more hygienic, more environmentally friendly and more secure compared to materials that we use for our peso bills," he said.

"So our P1,000 bills featuring our three national heroes and martyrs will not be demonetized. The bill featuring the Philippine Eagle is for test circulation only to test the polymer material," he added.

Nograles said the test circulation of the new P1,000 bills will start in April next year but he did not say until when it will be run by the BSP.

"I think the timeline, if our understanding is right, is in April the start of the circulation. That will be part of the test circulation. So, after that, as it runs its test circulation, I don’t know how many months it will take for them to be able to verify or validate the advantages of polymer," he said.

"BSP emphasized that they are doing this whole exercise for security purposes apart from testing the polymer material and part of it also is, the BSP explained that P1,000 bills is one ofthe most widely circulated bills which others were trying to fake,'' said Nograles. Robina Asido/DMS