‘Amount small but issue is honesty’

KIDAPAWAN CITY—There were no second thoughts for security guard Emerold Obatay when he found P12,500 in cash scattered on the road here.

He returned the money because it was not his even if it could have lifted him, though briefly, out of the poverty that had pushed him deep in debt when he tried to save his daughter’s life from cancer.

Obatay, a security guard at a Mercury Drug Store branch here, turned over the money to a Church-run radio station here, leaving it there to be claimed by its real owner.

His deed was not lost on the city officials. The city government presented him with a plaque and a job offer.

“Who doesn’t need money? I need money, too, but this is not mine and in no way  will it become mine,” said Obatay in a radio interview here.

Obatay’s daughter died of cancer a few weeks back, and the guard said he was still paying debts from her medication.

“I badly need money, like anyone of us, but taking what is not mine is not right. I am poor but I have dignity and I am honest,” said Obatay in the radio interview.

“I have to return it to its rightful owner and I have no way to know who the real owner is, so I came over to your radio station,” he said.

Councilor Gregory Yarra sponsored a resolution to recognize Obatay’s good deed. “What he did was worth emulating. We should recognize his honesty.” Yarra said.

When he was asked to show up at the city council during its regular session on Thursday, Obatay told the legislators he was, at first, tempted to keep the money as nobody saw him pick it up.

“But the good in me prevailed so I decided to return the money. Besides, the owner deserved to have his or her hard-earned money back,” he said in between sobs.

He said the owner, a certain Mr. Porras, offered him reward money, but he turned it down politely.

“The amount involved is small, but the issue is the finder’s honesty. That is what we are recognizing,” Yarra said.