Naia, seaman laud honest taxi driver

MANILA, Philippines—Another taxi driver has earned praises from officials of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) after returning a bag containing $1,700 (around P75,000) that was left in the cab by a seafarer who came home for his father’s funeral.

The owner, Richard Pelino, came to get his bag back at Naia’s lost and found section on Wednesday afternoon and extended his gratitude to cab driver Ricardo Villanueva.

Pelino, along with colleagues who fetched him at the airport, hired Villanueva’s cab upon his arrival from Hong Kong on Tuesday night, according to Reynon Flores, an airport policeman assigned at the lost and found section.

Villanueva said he brought Pelino and his group to a hotel in Manila and headed back to Naia to pick up another passenger. On the way to the airport, he found the black bag left by Pelino containing cash, a laptop, several electronic gadgets and the seafarer’s passport.

The driver turned over the bag to the loss and found section, which then contacted Pelino.

Flores said Pelino was thankful for Villanueva’s honesty, adding that the seaman flew to Manila because his father recently died and that the money was for the funeral expenses.—Jerome Aning