Etc...

That's Gloria, with a 'G'

Just in time for the Christmas shopping season, bales of new 100-peso banknotes have been shipped from a printing plant in Europe to the Philippines. But it's probable that some of them won't be spent. In fact, if they change hands at all, it may be only as collectors' items. Why? Is something wrong with them? Not really; they're fully legal tender . On the other hand, an unspecified number turn out to have come off the presses with a glaring error in spelling ... of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's name. Under her signature, these bills say "Arrovo," with a "v" instead of a "y." Unprecedented, huffed an official of the Central Bank in Manila, which has apologized to her and is "taking pains to investigate exactly what happened" (which would seem to be self-evident) and "institute additional measures that will prevent such from happening again." Arroyo, whose political opponents have been trying to impeach her and who is otherwise unpopular with many Filipinos, presumably has far more serious concerns at the moment. Still, the Central Bank is hoping to collect and destroy as many of the misprints as possible while corrected bills are printed.