Navotas rewards honest 9-year-old boy

A nine-year-old who wants to be a Boy Scout and a soldier was recently honored for returning P9,000 he found on the street.

Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco has awarded Eugene Zambales, a third-grader from Bagumbayan Elementary School in Barangay Sipac-Almacen, a certificate of recognition for honesty at the city hall.

Eugene was walking home at around noon on Oct. 22 when he stumbled on a small black bag in front of the Bagumbayan barangay hall.

When Eugene opened the bag, he found P9,000 in cash, which he later learned belongs to Carmelita Madrid, who offered him a token amount as reward.

Eugene told The STAR the first thing that came to his mind when he saw the P9,000 was to immediately return the money to its rightful owner.

“Someone might be sick. The owner might need the money,” he said.

Eugene, the elder of two children of tricycle driver Robert, 38, and his wife, Catherine Electona, said he does not know if he is a member of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, but that he really wants to be a Boy Scout.

Sonia Padernal, assistant principal of Bagumbayan Elementary School, said they are trying to verify if Eugene is registered as a Boy Scout so they could give him the highest possible honor for a Boy Scout.

Veneranda Telada, Eugene’s teacher-adviser, attested to the good character of his pupil. Eugene is one of only three pupils to whom she entrusts the school canteen’s earnings from goods sold in her class, she told The STAR.

Eugene said he wants to be a soldier like his Tito Bernie, a former lieutenant in the Army Scout Rangers, who has joined the Bureau of Fire Protection.

“I challenge the soldiers and children like me to be honest, just like Boy Scouts,” he said.

Tito Bernie, the elder brother of Eugene’s father, is Bernard Zambales, deputy to the chief of Lumban, Laguna’s firefighting station.