Driver who returned wallet gets city's praise - again

For the second time, a taxi driver earned the praise of the city council for returning the wallet left behind by a Japanese tourist.

In the council session last Wednesday, the council praised the honesty of taxi driver Toribio Malicay Jr., who returned the wallet containing $10,000, roughly equal to P.5 million, on the morning of July 11, 2006.

Councilors Edgardo Labella, Arsenio Pacaña and Raul Alcoseba, who filed separate resolutions that were approved en masse, said that Malicay's act projects the good image of the country in general, and Cebu City in particular, to foreign and local visitors under the tourism program thrust of the government.

"The exemplary deed of Mr. Malicay is a telling testament that the good value of honesty is still not lost among the people driving the taxicabs plying the streets of Cebu City even under these adverse times," the resolution stated.

Malicay, 50, a driver of Spider taxi and a resident of sitio Banawa, barangay Guadalupe, ferried three Japanese tourists to various entertainment establishments on the night of July 10 until dawn the following day.

After taking the three Japanese guests back to their hotel in nearby Mactan Island, Malicay noticed a wallet left behind in the front seat of his taxicab.

Upon scrutiny, Malicay found US$10,000 in the wallet as well as identification cards and a passport. He drove back to the hotel and returned the wallet to the Japanese owner who thanked him profusely. Malicay politely declined the cash reward the tourist offered him.

Malicay said that it also helps a lot to have an employer, Chiquito Obeso, the proprietor of the Spider, Airland and Scorpion fleet of taxis, who motivates his drivers to return things left behind by their passengers, both foreign and local.

This was not the first time he was commended for returning a wallet, sometime in 1994 the Cebu City government also commended Malicay for returning a wallet containing P200,000 to a passenger who also left it in the taxicab he was driving at the time.

Councilor Sylvian Jakosalem, chairman of the committee on transportation in the council, said the city will give a plaque of recognition to Malicay for his honesty. - Garry B. Lao