PHILIPPINE STAR

Monday, July 2, 2007 12:29 PM MANILA (AP) - He needed the money for his sick wife and overdue rent, but honesty prevented a motorcycle taxi driver from keeping $17,000 left behind by a passenger.

Iluminado Boc returned the money to police in Tagbilaran city on central Bohol island last week, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported Monday. The woman who lost the bag of cash had just reported it to police when Boc showed up at the precinct.

"It was not mine," Boc was quoted as saying.

Boc, 45, said he was struggling financially because his wife was taken to a hospital the same day he found the money, and they had unpaid rent.

The owner rewarded him with $32 - about seven times what a motorcycle taxi driver makes a day.

• Herbert Ocampo, the waiter who returned around US$100,000 (at least PhP5 Million), which he found at the coffee shop of the Sulo Hotel, accepts a new job at Duty Free Philippines from Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon

• UNUSUAL EMPLOYEE: Airport Security Guard Gilbert Tindungan, and Bureau of Immigration Intelligence Officer Paterno William Bell, returned a laptop computer worth around PhP125,000 and US$2,700 accidentally left by a balikbayan from the USA.

• Florita Mondoyo, janitress at the Manila Domestic Airport, returned an envelope containing US$10,000, which she found at the passenger pre-boarding area while cleaning.

• HONESTY PREVAILS: Batangas Country Club resort staff, Joseph Navarro, handed back more than US$1,000 bills unknowingly dropped by balikbayan Dorothy Requilman's sister-in-law.

• Corporals Dominic Jimenez and Gerry Soriano returned a bag containing PhP 30,000 cash, which they found at the NAIA Terminal-2 northwing arrival area, to owner, former Senator Victor Ziga.

Remus Mark A. Carballo

[Travel Specialist]

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HERE'S ANOTHER STORY OF A GOOD HEART.:)

FOR returning a wallet that his passenger left, a driver got P500 and a job offer from Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday.

Cab driver Joseph dela Peña, a father of three, said his fellow taxi drivers prodded him to keep the wallet so they can use the money to go on a drinking binge.

But the thought of his family not having anything to eat as a result of karma prompted him to turn over the wallet to the mayor's office.

The wallet had P3,375, US$81 and one riyal in cash, and seven ATM and credit cards with the names Maria Cecilia and Odin Amatonding.

It was not the first time dela Peña returned a wallet left by a passenger. Last Dec. 24, he also returned a wallet with P10,000.

"My fellow drivers saw the wallet inside my cab while I was parking. They didn't want me to return it but I told them it was not ours, so we have to hand it in. Times are difficult but it's better to eat the fruits of our hard work," dela Peña told reporters in Cebuano at the mayor's office yesterday.

Dela Peña, a cab driver for 18 years now, was driving an Emerson taxi with plate number GWW 461 when a female passenger got on his unit past 5 a.m. yesterday, and alighted at the pier one area.

He turned over the wallet and cash to the mayor yesterday morning.

Osmeña offered him a job at City Hall and gave him P500 as incentive for his honesty.

Dela Peña said he will discuss the job offer with his wife, as they are already contented with the P500 he earns during his 24-hour shift. Sun.Star