An honest immigration officer returned US$10,000 in cash which is equivalent to half a million pesos which was left behind by a passenger at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said on Thursday.
The money has yet to be claimed by a still unidentified passenger who might have already left the country, the BI chief said.
The honest BI employee, Bernadette Velasquez, BI collecting officer at the Naia Terminal 3, was commended for her honest deed.
Morente said Velasquez’s act of returning such large amount of money impressed him so much as “it proved once again that the BI is not bereft of men and women who are incorruptible even if they are experiencing financial difficulties.”
Velasquez reportedly returned the money to her superiors a day after she discovered the hundred pieces of 100 US dollar bills inside a brown envelope which the owner left in front of her counter at around 9 p.m. on May 4.
In her report, Velasquez recalled how she could not sleep that night as she was in a quandary on what to do with the money which do not belong to her.
She recounted that she even called the attention of an Indian passenger who had just paid his fees at her counter to ask if the envelope belonged to him but the latter disowned it.
Velasquez then sought the advice of her former superior in Batangas who then suggested that she call her duty supervisor that night to inform her about the incident.
Upon instruction of BI port operations chief Marc Red Mariñas, the supervisor reportedly told Velasquez to keep the money for the time being as the owner might show up to claim the money.
On May 6, or two days after the incident, and upon realizing that no one still claimed the money, Velasquez decided to return the money to her superior at the main office.
The BI advised the still unidentified passenger—most probably a foreigner currently abroad —to claim the money at the cash section of the bureau’s main office in Intramuros, Manila where it was turned over for safekeeping.