Where did the piles of shredded money that was dumped in a Laguna landfill come from?

Millions in thousand peso bills is the dream, but in a landfill in Laguna, it has turned into a nightmare of a million pesos of shredded pieces!

"Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho" this Sunday got in touch with the people who discovered piles of money that were just casually tossed in the trash. Armed with tape and an eye for piecing together puzzles, residents like Mang Itong are hoping to make "may pera sa basura" a reality.

Mang Itong has put together pieces of peso bills and he's hoping to invest it in a small business. "Siguro mga aabutin din 'yan ng P10,000. Malaking tulong na rin sana 'yon," he said.

According to him, he won't be able to scrape that together from scraps no matter how hard he works in a month. Looking at the tattered bills, he said that he wishes they just gave these to people like him who really need it.

But where did this money come from anyway?

A woman scorned, money torn?

As soon as the money appeared in the landfill, rumors of its origin began circulating.

One story goes that the wife of a womanizing millionaire finally said enough is enough. She gathered her husband's cash and hit him where it hurts most by shredding his money. “Ano? Wala ka ng pera sa pambababae mo!” the wife might have said angrily.

A different but similar story tells of a wife of an Overseas Filipino Worker shredding the money after a huge fight. However, even the residents sharing these stories don't believe it completely.

Reduced to scraps

The KMJS team was able to trace the bags of shredded bills to the nearby province of Lucena and it was revealed by a caretaker that the money came from an actual bank.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas confirmed that the bills found in the landfills are real. The BSP has been disposing of older bills in the Lucena landfill since 2000 and they mutilate it to permanently remove it from circulation.

“Kapag nasira ang salapi, hindi siya basta-bastang [kayang] palitan na lang lahat, mayroon tayong mga provision dito o requirement. Ang una ay dapat ang kanyang surface area ay may 60% pa. Du’n sa mga nakakuha i-surrender ninyo na lang po sa pinakamalapit na Banko Sentral para ano na po, hindi na kumalat,” Deputy Director Grace Malic said.

The BSP additionally reminded the public that destroying any denomination of Philippine currency is punishable by law. And, sadly, piecing together a mutilated bill won't bring back its value. — Aya Tantiangco/LA, GMA News