Honest airport workers reap praises

ILOILO International Airport utility workers Rovelyn de la Peña (left) and Edgardo Penit have earned praises for turning over a bag containing cash and personal items left by a foreigner at the airport. NESTOR P. BURGOS JR.

Even as dozens of legislators are parrying allegations of pocketing billions of pesos in pork barrel funds, two workers at Iloilo International Airport are reaping praises for their honesty.

“We feel like celebrities,” Rovelyn de la Peña told the Inquirer.

“I was walking at the market and people were greeting and congratulating me,” said Edgardo Penit.

De la Peña, 38, and Penit, 49, are airport cleaners who found and turned over a bag left by a passenger at the departure area of the airport on May 6.  The bag contained cash in various currencies, electronic gadgets, accessories and travel documents.

Penit, who has been an airport employee since 2007, said he found the black traveling bag under a seat near Gate 5 at the departure area about 9 p.m. on May 6 while passengers were boarding a Cebu Pacific flight bound for Manila.

He called the attention of De la Peña and placed the bag on top of the seat in case the owner returned to retrieve it. After waiting for several minutes, they had the owner paged over the airport’s public address system.

There was still no claimant after the plane departed.

De la Peña and Penit turned over the bag to the airport’s clinic because the lost-and-found office was already closed at that time.

An initial inventory of the contents of the bag was conducted at the clinic, according to Rodner Nolasco, chief officer of the airport.

The next day, another inventory was conducted when the bag was turned over to the lost-and-found section.

The bag contained cash amounting to 130 United Arab Emirates dirhams (about P1,541) and 31,000 francs in various denominations.

Airport officials could not determine the total peso equivalent of the cash because several countries, including those in Europe and Africa, use francs as their currency.

“We did not release any peso equivalent because we cannot determine the specific currency. And what is important to us is that all items inside the bag were recovered and turned over,” Nolasco said.

Helen Catalbas, Department of Tourism (DOT) Western Visayas director, said the currency was in Togolese (West African) francs.  A CFA franc is equivalent to P .091. Converted to peso,  31,000 CFA francs is about P2,821.

Also found in the bag were a laptop and charger, camera, mobile phone charger, a pair of sunglasses and a black wallet containing a passport, immigration documents and identification cards.

Nolasco said the owner of the bag was traced and contacted through the  footage of the airport’s security cameras and based on passenger manifests of flights that departed during the time the bag was recovered.

He said the  footage showed the owner of the bag leaving his seat with two bags and leaving a third bag under the seat.

The owner was identified through the documents in the bag as a Ghanan based in Lome, Togo, in West Africa.

Airport officials led by Percy Malonesio, officer in charge of Iloilo International Airport, turned over the bag with its contents to the owner’s live-in partner, a resident of Iloilo province, on

May 12.

It is not the first time that De la Peña, who has been working at the airport since 2008, was lauded for her honesty.

She received two separate certificates of recognition in June and December last year for returning mobile phones left by passengers.

Penit had also previously recovered and returned food items and giveaways at the departure area.

Venisha Calasara, supervisor of the passenger terminal building, said the utility workers were trained to always be  honest and courteous.

“But honesty is an individual trait and it will always be up to the worker whether to be trustworthy or not. These two have shown it,”  she said.

In recognition of  their honesty and dedication to their work, the DOT is eyeing their nomination to its Tourism Star Awards, Catalbas said.

She said the nomination should come from individuals and organizations outside the DOT.

The award is a recognition program for tourism front-liners and local chief executives “who have demonstrated excellent customer service and have helped in enriching the experience of a tourist,” according to Catalbas.

But the two workers downplayed the recognition, saying they    did only   what was right. De la Peña said she did what she had taught  her two children, ages 11 and 12—to be honest and return what doesn’t belong to them.