Pangasinan cops cited for returning P10-M to mishap victims’ family

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — Believe it or not, there are still a few good men in the police force.

At a time when the image of the nation’s cops have sunk so low, 10 members of the Sison municipal police returned an estimated P10 million in cash and millions of pesos worth of jewelry and personal belongings to the family of banker Emilia Sta. Cruz Hermoso, 79, and her daughter Elizabeth, 19, who were among those killed in a car accident last Dec. 26 along the national highway in Sison.

Hermoso owned the Liberty Bank in Meycauayan, Bulacan.

Because of such a display of honesty, Senior Superintendent Arturo Cacdac Jr., provincial police director, told The STAR that he would recommend medals and plaques of recognition for the policemen.

The awarding is slated on the second Monday of January, and Cacdac said he would like Gov. Victor Agbayani to be present during the event.

Cacdac said the policemen could have been tempted to keep the huge amount of cash and jewelry they found at the accident scene.

However, they returned to the victims’ family even the last 25 centavos they found from the Hermosos’ Jaguar car that collided with a passenger bus.

The Hermosos’ driver, Liberato Pajarito Esguerra, 27, was also killed in the accident. Their helper, Ely Aquino Dominon, 31, was injured.

Superintendent Alfredo Basco, Sison police chief, said his men could have told the victims’ relatives that looters had gotten the cash and the jewelry.

"But your conscience would bother you because you had seen their bloodied bodies and yet you would steal their belongings," he said in Tagalog.