INQUIRER Global Nation

There is money in garbage.

That saying was proven true. In fact, there was P3

million worth of it in the garbage.

A sack containing Japanese yen that is roughly worth P3 million was found by scavengers at the Inayawan Sanitary landfill shortly after 5 a.m. yesterday.

Scavengers who were scrambling on top of a dumptruck that was about to enter the dumpsite found the sack of money from among the sacks of garbage that were about to be dumped inside the landfill.

Unfortunately, by the time someone, a money changer, came forward to claim the money, it was already gone.

The scavengers had apparently divided the wads of yen among themselves.

Engineer Eduardo Potot, officer in charge of the Inawayan Sanitary landfill, said he was entering the landfill site around 7 a.m. yesterday when he got curious at the presence of scavengers swarming outside the gate of the landfill.

“I was surprised why they were huddling outside the gate. I was surprised why they were not going through the garbage, as they would normally do,” Potot told .

Thinking that the scavengers were just arguing among themselves, he continued to drive his multi-cab inside the landfill compound and went directly to his office.

He said he got busy with work and did not know about the money found among the garbage until around 11 a.m.

He said Calamba barangay captain Victor Quijano Jr. came asking about the money lost by one of his constituents.

It was only then that Potot said he asked around and was told by some security personnel at the dumpsite that they heard from some scavengers that there was indeed a sack of money that the scavengers found and distributed among themselves.

According to Potot, Quijano told him that the money in yen denomination was worth P3 million.

Apparently, a garbage collector mistakenly hauled the sack of money because it was placed alongside sacks of garbage bags that were found in front of the money changer’s outlet in barangay Calamba.

Potot said Quijano did not explain why the money changer placed the sack of yen alongside the garbage.

“The barangay captain of Calamba came to ask me what happened to the money but I could not give him any answer because I do not know where the money went,” Potot said in Cebuano.

Engineer Dionesio Gualiza, chief of the Department of Public Services (DPS), said he was unaware of the incident until last night.

Potot said agents of the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas went to the landfill area yesterday afternoon to go after the missing money. Reporter Marian Z. Codilla