Honest cab drivers return lost items

Not just one, but two taxi drivers returned valuables left behind by their passengers in Cebu City.

Julito Quiro of barangay Mambaling, Cebu City found a wallet containing P26,500 cash, bank cards and documents while and Mario Darandan of Consolacion town found a Canon EOS 7D digital camera.

Quiro turned over the wallet to his operator, Jose Mellomida, who in turn surrendered the same to the Cebu City Police Traffic Patrol Group yesterday morning.

The police managed to trace the owner, Eldiro Gaso, 49, of barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City.

Gaso said he was every thankful as he’ll be leaving todayfor Bacolod and he needed the documents he left behind.

“Nalipay ko. Pwerting lipaya kay mobiyahe ko ugma sa Bacolod at least nakuha nako ang lisensya,” he said.

Gaso said the money was meant for his father who is confined in a hospital.

“I’ve been saving this up long ago for emegency purposes. And it’s timely that my father is in the hospital,” he said.

Gaso said he hailed the Quiro’s cab near the University of the Philippines campus in Gorordo Avenue and asked to be taken to Happy Valley.

He said that as he was about to pay his fare, he placed his bulky wallet on the backseat and forgot to pick it up as he alighted from the cab.

Quiro said he didn’t know that a wallet was left behind his cab until after he had dropped another passenger in City Hall.

“After I dropped him (Gaso), I had two other passengers who was bound for Mango Avenue and for Cebu City Hall,” he told Cebu Daily News.

The driver immediately went to his operator to hand over the wallet.

The operator, Mellomida, said the police called him up before the driver came and informed him that Gaso had sought their help to recover his wallet.

The driver, Quiro, said he tried calling Gaso, but his phone was switched off.

Darandan meanwhile, temporarily stopped plying his route in an effort to locate the owner of the pricey camera, estimated to be worth P85,000-89,000.

“I went to the Mactan-Cebu International Airport security to report the lost camera. I gave them my number and asked them to call me should they locate the owner. I also went to the South Bus Terminal and did the same until I ended up in the Citom (Cebu Integrated Traffic Operations Management) office to turn over the camera,” he told CDN.

Darandan said his son, who was about to wash the cab, found the camera after he opened the passenger side door last Sunday.

According to the camera’s owner, Paul Michael Estacio, a nurse from Dapitan City who took a two-day vacation in the province, he noticed that his camera bag was missing when he got into the apartment he was staying in Apas, San Miguel Village last Sunday. He immediately called the police and Citom and reported the incident.

Darandan went to the Citom office on Wednesday to surrender the camera.

The camera’s owner, who is in Manila, was informed that his camera was recovered and is now in the custody of Citom communications section officer-in-charge Rosario Torres.

“The owner’s cousin, who is a police officer, will be the one to claim the item,” she said.