5 Centavos

The Mindanao Emergency Currency Board was one of several guerrilla currency authorities operating in the southern Philippines during the Japanese occupation. These local boards printed their own notes to sustain the resistance economy — Japanese military pesos were rejected outright by much of the interior population, and US-backed guerrilla commanders actively encouraged the alternative issues to undermine occupation monetary control.

Three signatures on a 5 centavo denomination is unusual by any measure. The Saguin-Pacana-Barbasa combination appears consistently across the S531 series, suggesting the board operated with collective authorization rather than delegated signing authority — a practical safeguard against capture or defection disrupting the currency supply.