Three men were sentenced to prison by the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 3 for counterfeiting Philippine pesos.

Reports said that the suspects — identified as Paolo Cabrera, Francis Tuwalya and Datu Harun Mangundatu — were arrested by the Manila Police District Special Reaction Unit during a raid on an apartment in Sampaloc, Manila on 29 December 2020.

The raid, led by P/Lt. Col Rosalino Ibay Jr., was conducted with a search warrant as authorities seized evidence including freshly-printed uncut P1,000 bills and various denominations of counterfeit money.

Following a nearly three-year court case involving both prosecution and defense arguments, Judge Jimmy Santiago found the accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt of violating Article 166 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended.

The court order sentenced each of the accused to an indeterminate penalty ranging from 11 years and four months of imprisonment to thirteen 13 years, nine months and 10 days of imprisonment.

Additionally, each defendant was fined P100,000.