Filipinos Are Honest People Through Generations

Another ordinary Filipino airport worker has shown his innate tendency as an honest person by returning more than one million pesos of cash and valuables recently to the owner.

Ronald Gadayan, Honest Man
Image: quotednews.com

And this honest, conscientious man is Ronald Gadayan, an airport janitor in NAIA found a bag with Php. 634,896.00 in cash and valuables in the pre-departure area while doing his routine work as a glass cleaner.

That's really a big money for Ronald if he wanted to keep it for himself. But his conscience told him the right thing to do. Thus, he didn't opt to keep the money and jewelries inside the bag. Instead he returned it to the authority of the airport.

It was confirmed that the said huge of money and valuables which were valued to Php 1.8 million were turned over to the owner, Franchis Lloyd Chua, a business man through his representative, Marie Cherie Lyn Cruz who claimed them from the airport officer.

As of this writing, no gratuity or reward has ever given to the honest finder, Ronald Gadayan.

But for Ronald, the greatest recognition he may have had is the peace of mind and righteous deed he ever did on that day. He knows God has already confirmed his honesty. He will be soon rewarded for it, not in an envelop or grandiose fanfare, but a blessing which couldn't be counted.

Ronald Gadayan is one of those honest Filipino who works as a taxi driver, street cleaners, tricycle driver, janitor, student,porter, among others.

Rare Honest Filipino Workers

Here are some of the run-down of honest Filipinos who are happy for the things they did, which worth to be emulated:

1. Sotero Canonoy, a taxi driver who turned over a bag which contained a laptop, PSP, cell phone, wristwatch, and some clothes and medicines left by the tourists whom he transported to Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 on March 23.

2. Two Cotabateños – Enfamil Sampayan and tricycle driver Akas Onotan – were cited for honesty after turning over an envelope containing checks worth P100,000 they found while serving in the streets on Aug. 19, 2011

3. Primitivo Salo, 48-year-old Salo, also known as “Mang Istib”, a taxi driver, in  2008, returned a wallet found in his cab containing dollars worth more than 80,000 pesos through GMA-7 and asked for television anchor Mike Enriquez to help me reach the owner of the money.

4. Ricky Lamanilao, a taxi driver returned around P200,000 to a British tourist who forgot his bag inside the cab which also contained the passport, credit cards, and other documents of Paul Ross.

5. Airline janitor Romeo Pelaez was on duty cleaning an aircraft of Japan Airlines (JAL) found a bag which  contained 3 million yen, or P1.5 million, a cellular phone and documents. The bag was owned by a Japanese national and his Filipino wife who were passengers of JAL flight JL 745 from Narita, which arrived at about 10:40 p.m. on March 29.

6. 44-year-old Nita Ramos, a janitress of PRC Management System, turned over pieces of jewelry she had found at the Manila Domestic Airport. The 23 pieces of jewelry, gold and silver rings cost an estimated P150,000 to P200,000. They're found in the pre-departure ladies room of the domestic airport at around 12:30 p.m.

7. An Ilonggo Nestor Sulpico who worked as taxi driver in New York returned $70,000 worth of black pearls left in his cab by a passenger.

8. Tinay Bugayong, 12 years old returned the envelop which contained P300 thousand in cash and checks dropped by messenger riding a motorcycle on T. Gener St. in Kamuning. Her instinct was to return it to the rightful owner.

9. Three members of Taguig city’s Traffic Enforcement Unit Senior Insp. Fernando Lipata, SPO1 Clemente Orpilla and PO2 Sadat Abad returned the briefcase which contained P120,000 in cash and several blank checks, travel documents, and a US passport to Fr. Dean William. The briefcase was found in the sidewalk forcibly opened by several street children.

10. Manuel Audis Jr., a porter at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) found a bag that contained $5,600 (P200,000 more or less) in cash and returned it to Vlama Kasan Bailon, a Filipino worker who had just returned from Jordan.

11. Two Filipina, Marilyn Campos, 39, a single mother, and Analyn Aquino, 26, were rewarded by city Mayor Lani Cayetano of Taguig for their honesty. While doing their day-to-day chores as a street cleaners, they accidentally found the P95,000 cash in a trash can inside the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) compound in Bicutan, Taguig City and returned it to the owner, Engineer Dante Pedrizo, a resident of Samaba K9, Lower Bicutan sometime in July 2011.

PH History claimed that Filipinos – rich or poor – have been, indeed, honest through generations. And the pioneer Chinese traders did confirm this.