BSP’s ‘crazy’ advisory on money from ATM

Gaslighting seems to be the common “palusot” of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas whenever it is faced with complaints about the “kapalpakan” in the way the banking system works in this country. In his letter to the editor (“Are cybercriminals smarter than BSP’s cyber experts?” 1/28/22), Stephen Monsanto quoted what BSP Gov. Benjamin Diokno said to explain away the hacking of public school teachers’ Landbank account as somehow the fault of the naïve teachers who were dumb enough to share information about their bank accounts on the internet.

But the most alarming thing that came out of Diokno’s mindset was the public advisory to the public to be extra careful when they withdraw their money from the banks’ ATMs. He urged them to scrutinize for “authenticity” every banknote that such ATMs spew out. Who does that? Does Diokno himself really do that? Who has time to check the bills one by one when a hold-upper might just be lurking around nearby?!

If the customers are naïve enough to trust that the banks would only dispense good money from their ATMs, it’s mainly the customers’ fault if the money turns out to be fake for failing to do the “feel, look, tilt approach” (as Diokno suggested)—and not entirely the banks’? As crazy BSP ideas go, this one must really take the cake.

Where does Diokno get off with such a stupid idea despite being paid about P20 million for his “genius” in 2020 alone?! One cannot help thinking that with the kind of “public service” BSP officials are rendering, who needs bank robbers?!

MARIA MARGARITA AYTONA
marimar_ay@yahoo.com