Garbage scavengers who found a bag containing shredded money in a Laguna landfill last Sunday consider themselves lucky. They are cashing in on the find by taping together the money. One of the finders named Mang Itong even estimated they will get P10,000 once the shredded bills are pieced together.

The bag of shredded money was traced to a bank in Lucena City and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas confirmed that it is real. The money was apparently old bills, so the bank disposed of it.

Since 2000, the landfill has been the dumping ground of old bills that the BSP mutilated to take it out of circulation, according to a report on the incident. Unfortunately for the scavengers, even if they piece together all the shredded cash, they cannot exchange them for new ones.

According to a BSP official, damaged money should have at least 60 percent surface area intact for it to be replaced by a bank. The scavengers may choose to immediately use the assembled money to buy goods, but they should not complain if they also get a pieced-together item.