He Had No Idea What It Was: Scavenger who found sack of dollars in dump surfaces

CEBU - After having gone in hiding for several days since he found the bundles of US dollars at the Inayawan landfill giving rise of speculations that he took with him the bulk of the $60,000 accidentally thrown by a money changer, the scavenger surfaced yesterday to clear his name.

Napoleon Ursabia Alburo went to the station manager of Radio Mindanao Network dyHP, lawyer Ruphil Bañoc, to seek legal advice.

Alburo, 20, said he wanted to clear his name from allegations that he took the bulk of the foreign currency that he found.

He said that he did not take a single dollar when he went into hiding, because of fear that he will be arrested.

He said that he has not finished Grade 1 and he thought that he will be arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation, because of the dollars he found.

According to Alburo, he was afraid because the people in their barangay told him that the NBI was looking for him. This prompted him and his family to leave Inayawan and they moved to the southern town of Argao.

However, Alburo said his life has become miserable hiding in Argao without any source of income to feed his one-year-old kid and his pregnant wife.

Alburo yesterday decided to come back to his shanty in Inayawan and seek the help of the radio station.

 Bañoc told The FREEMAN that they will help Alburo clear his name and protect him from harassment.

According to Bañoc, while Alburo was the one who found the dollars, he did not benefit from it.

Bañoc said that Alburo explained to him that when he found the dollars from the sack at the garbage dump, he poured the contents and invited the other scavengers to take a look at what he found.

Alburo said that he did not recognize the currency and instead left his fellow scavengers who took some of the money.

Alburo said he gave all his part to his brother Julie Compisto, who also returned it to the NBI.

“Nangayo siya og tabang unya gi explain niya ang nahitabo sa basurahan. Namiserable man iyang kinabuhi niining kalakiha,” Bañoc said.

Alburo also denied earlier reports that he was given P100,000 by Inayawan Barangay Captain Rustico Ignacio after turning over the dollars to him. Alburo told dyHP that he was not given anything by Ignacio and that he did not take with him any part of the dollars.

Although part of the $60,000 has been returned to the owner, the bulk of it remains unaccounted.

The NBI was only able to recover $20,500 after it was returned by Compisto and his auntie Victoria Candido.

The NBI turned over the recovered dollars last Tuesday after the owner Emiliano Tanpin, Jr. was able to present proof of ownership. — Fred P. Languido/NLQ   (THE FREEMAN)