Iloilo Airport’s ‘honest janitors’ to receive honors for turning over P1-M to authorities

Iloilo International Airport. Wikipedia photo

ILOILO CITY (PNA)- The honesty shown by the two lowly workers tending menial jobs at the Iloilo International Airport is a shining example worthy of emulation now-a-days after they turned over to the airport management almost a million pesos worth of foreign currencies they found at the pre-departure area of the facililty in Cabatuan, Iloilo province.

In return, the Department of Tourism regional office (DOT-6) here is eyeing giving appropriate honors to the two airport utility workers for their honesty.

DOT Reg. 6 director Atty. Helen Catalbas said they have already coordinated with Percy Malonicio, manager of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP)for the laudable deed shown by janitors Rubilyn Dela Peña and Edgar Penit.

Apart from the honors to be awarded by the DOT-6, the regional director would also recommend the two utility workers for national recognition for the Tourism Star Awards in the country, saying the honesty of the duo is an added ‘pogi points’ for tourism in the region as the place of honest people in this countryside.

It can be recalled that on Tuesday evening, May 6, the two utility workers were performing their usual graveyard shift chores at the Iloilo International Airport like cleaning the toilets to keep the facility spick-and-span when Penit spotted a black bag by its lonesome sitting on a pre-departure area bench.

Instinctively, he peeped into the bag and what he saw took him by surprise. Inside were crisp dollars and dinars which they learned later amounted to over P 1 million pesos in Philippine currency.

Losing no time, he called the attention of co-worker de la Pena and together, the pair called their supervisor who in turn, deposited the bag to the airport’s ‘Lost and Found Section’ for custody and proper disposition by CAAP authorities.

When asked why they decided to hand over the bag when they could have spent the money to buy their needs as they themselves are also dirt-poor and hardly able to make ends meet with their meager wages.

But the duo said that in their many years of work at the airport, it has never occurred to their minds to keep anything of value, whether big or small for themselves. “We’re just doing our job”, they said.

Meanwhile, the airport authorities declined to elaborate further details relative to the exact amount to prevent wrong owners and interested persons from claiming the money as if they are the rightful owners.