Honest NAIA Customs examiners return jewelry, cash to Vietnamese businesswoman

Two Customs examiners at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 arrival area returned an organizer that contained jewelry and cash to a Vietnamese businesswoman who left it at the airport yesterday morning.

Customs examiners Amer Madcasim and Samuel Saed said that around 6:45 a.m. yesterday, they saw a dark gray organizer on top of the Customs information table after serving the passengers of a Cebu Pacific flight from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.

The two men said they decided to check the contents of the organizer and found it contained three gold bracelets, three white gold bracelets, a gold bangle, $371 and P1,700. They brought it to the attention for Customs collector Teresita Roque, who called up a cell phone number she found in the organizer and identified the owner as Huynh Thi Tuyet Ramos, a Vietnamese businesswoman married to a Filipino.

The Customs personnel were able to contact Ramos’ daughter and tell her about the organizer her mother left at the airport.

Ramos said she was on her way to Laguna when she received a call from her daughter about her organizer.

At NAIA, Ramos counted the cash and inventoried the jewelry in her organizer in the presence of Roque, Saed and Madcasim. She thanked them and said she was glad “there are still good people left.”

Ramos, 64, has been a resident of Sta. Cruz, Laguna since she married Alberto Ramos in 1971.