Honesty streak brightens up bleak week at airport

Three commendable acts of airport personnel in three separate incidents turned around what could have been a bad week for the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), which called off its scheduled "soft opening" for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal III because of the collapse of the ceiling last Monday.

Yesterday, pushcart retriever Emmanuel Norte, 29, earned praise from MIAA General Manager Alfonso Cusi when he returned a blue pouch containing $1,200 left on one baggage pushcart at the NAIA Terminal I arrival area at around 10 a.m.

The bag, it later turned out, was left behind by 61-year old Filipino-American balikbayan Nicanor Vidallon, who arrived yesterday from Los Angeles, California via China Airlines flight CI 631.

Vidallon, a retiree who came home to the Philippines after suffering a stroke overseas, had forgotten the bag on the pushcart that he used upon arrival. He was already on a jeepney going to Cavite with his only son who fetched him when he realized that he had left the bag.

While Norte was giving a narration of how he found the pouch bag to the MIAA Airport Police Department Investigation and Intelligence Division, Vidallon and his son entered the office to file a report on his lost bag.

As he was asking for help in locating the cash, police officers happily told him to worry no more and pointed to Norte as the one who found his money.

Given back his blue bag, Vidallon expressed relief and happiness that all its contents were intact.

"It’s all here," he exclaimed before airport policemen, Norte and some airport reporters. "Nagpapasalamat ako kay Emmanuel at isinauli nya ang aking pera. Pinahanga niya ako."

According to Vidallon, the money he almost lost was intended for his jobless son and for his recuperating expenses while in the country.

In appreciation for Norte’s good deed, Vidallon offered $100 to the cart retriever as reward.

However, Norte politely declined and said, "Huwag na po. Gamitin nyo na lang po sa pagpapagaling ninyo."

Role model cabbie

Norte’s good deed came three days after a similar case of an OFW forgetting his bag or, in this case, a wallet, in the NAIA vicinity, and having it returned by a Good Samaritan.

Last Tuesday, a 28-year-old airport taxi driver was also commended by MIAA for returning a wallet left in his cab by an overseas Filipino worker (OFW).

Rolando Escabusa, a cab driver for Sunshine Transportation Inc. and a resident of Barangay 177, Camarin, Caloocan City, declared his discovery of a wallet containing $1,800 and 500 Saudi riyals as well as important cards and personal documents while ferrying another passenger in Quezon City last Tuesday to his duty supervisor Anthony Hilario back at the NAIA.

Sunshine Transport is one of the MIAA’s accredited transport operators at the airport.

Accompanied by Hilario, Escabusa promptly headed to the MIAA Airport Police Department’s Investigation and Intelligence Division office at NAIA Terminal I.

At the IID office, OFW Benhavier Saning was in the process of filing a report about his lost wallet when the duo entered to surrender the wallet for its return to its owner.

Saning was ecstatic at the return of his wallet.

He profusely thanked Escabusa and expressed deep admiration for the driver’s honesty.

"Bihira na ang mga tulad mong matapat sa panahon ngayon. Natutuwa talaga ako," Saning, who had taken Escabusa’s cab after arriving from Riyadh where he worked as a pharmacist, told Escabusa.

Cusi led MIAA in commending Escabusa.

"It’s really very encouraging to see that our efforts to revive genuine Filipino values among all our airport workers are paying off. Slowly but surely, we are achieving results of this campaign," the MIAA chief said.

Cusi, it will be recalled, last year spearheaded the cleansing of the list of accredited airport taxicab operators, retaining only those whose drivers had not committed abuse of their passengers through collection of exorbitant fare.

"I take pride in Mr. Escabusa’s manifestation of honesty. The MIAA will not let this pass unnoticed. He should be a role model to all taxi drivers like him," Cusi said.

Honest guard

Escabusa and Norte were both preceeded in their acts of kindness by airport security guard Jerry Lazo Dalit of the Lanting Security and Watchmen’s Agency.

Dalit chanced upon a thick billfold of foreign currency worth a total of P15,600 bound together only by a rubber band while doing his rounds at the NAIA Terminal I arrival area last March 24.

While he could have easily pocketed the money, Dalit declared his find to his superiors who in turn coordinated with the MIAA IID for the return of the money to Yolanda Bautista, a nurse who came home on a vacation from her employment in Doha, Qatar, who had reported her loss of the cash two days later, or last Sunday, March 26.

Confirming from her statements that the money was Bautista’s, the MIAA IID turned over the money to the nurse.