By Jel Santos
A bag containing 79,500 US dollars, owned by a road accident victim, was returned by three honest personnel of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Tuesday in Taguig City.
They were identified as Mariel Bacho, Kristopher Concepcion, and Sheena Santillan. All are assigned at the MMDA Road Emergency Group.
The bag is containing bundles of US dollars -- equivalent to more than P4 million. They returned the bag to St Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City where victim Thomas Dichavez was rushed.
At 3:59 a.m., the team responded to a road accident involving a sport utility vehicle and a truck that took place along C5 Road-southbound in Taguig City.
According to Bacho, they found Dichavez inside a Mitsubishi Montero in an inclined position and immediately pulled him out of the damaged vehicle.
Injured Dichavez was conscious, but could not speak clearly, Bacho said.
Upon looking for the victim’s identification card, a bystander who first responded at the accident scene handed them a sling bag which was found inside the victim’s vehicle.
The team immediately secured the victim’s belongings and rushed him to the hospital.
Bacho said it was only at the hospital when they learned the contents of the bag.
The bag was turned over to the security personnel of the hospital to make sure it will be returned back to the owner.
She said it was not the first time that they returned valuables back to road accident victims.
Bacho said it is part of the MMDA road emergency personnel’s training to return recovered items from accident scenes.
“When we saw the bundles of US dollars inside the bag, it never crossed our mind to take it. We are also thankful to the male bystander who found the bag inside the vehicle,” Bacho said in Filipino.
Danilo Lim, MMDA chairman, lauded the three honest personnel for their exemplary and admirable character of truthfulness.
“We commend our employees for displaying an act of honesty. It is indeed worthy of emulation,” he said.