EDITORIAL - Smart fellas

The jeepney driver who recently returned nearly half-a-million pesos worth of checks is now being hailed as an honest driver. We would like to offer an added description. He is one smart fella.

Whether he was honestly moved by this display of honesty or not, Mayor Tomas Osmeña chose to reward the driver in a novel manner. No cash this time, as is the practice, but a condonation of the unpaid fines the driver has accumulated over the years. Osmeña is another smart fella.

Of course, Osmeña has to reward the driver. After all, he returned the checks, didn't he. Returning something that does not belong to you has got to be an act of honesty, unless somebody comes up with a more defining idea.

The point is, one cannot really be sure how things would have turned out if it was half-a-million pesos in cold cash that was left in the jeepney and not the bundle of checks that, despite its mesmerizing amount, was virtually useless to any finder.

To be sure, we are a bit unfair to the driver, and for that we apologize. But it is not our intention to cast aspersions on his integrity. It is just that we want to be sure of our own feelings. And to do that, we have to deal with all the variables.

Maybe, Osmeña also dealt with the same variables, hence the decision to reward the driver in kind, not in cash. Besides, the accumulated fines accumulated because the city has difficulty collecting them. No skin off Osmeña's back. And he ends up smelling good.

By the way, the decision to reward the driver with a condonation of his accumulated fines necessitates the unearthing of how much he owes. And here it is --- the honest driver owes the city P42,500 in unpaid fines, for 208 traffic violations committed over 10 years as a driver.

That is about 21 violations per year or two violations per month. Maybe some of them were for running red lights or making illegal stops and turns, all on the assumption that no traffic enforcer was around. On the issue of honesty, a smart driver has met a smart mayor.