CLARK FREEPORT — His family somehow lives on his meagre take-home pay of P6,000 a month, but janitor Dominic Bacayo,29, was not swayed by temptation to bring home a black bag that he thought to contain cash for sure at the Clark International Airport (CIA) here.
CIA operations chief Hilarion Ritchie Nacpil urged higher officials of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) to officially commend Bacayo for immediately reporting last March 29 a black sling bag that turned out to contain Chinese Yuan 2,426, Hong Kong $3,920 and P28,000. The bag also contained keys, identification cards and the owner’s passport.
Bacayo said his “instinct” was to report his find in the arrival area of the airport. Chinese national Li Weiliang who had just flown in from Hong Kong later showed up to claim the bag and thank Bacayo. Li also posed with Bacayo and airport officials for a souvenir photograph.
Nacpil could not immediately say what’s in store for Bacayo apart from a commendation citing the janitor for his “exemplary honesty.” Bacayo is not directly employed by CIAC, but by sub-contractor McKleene, a manpower firm.
Bacayo’s wife Angela, 24, described her husband, a native of Bacolod, as “instinctively honest.” She said they have two kids, an eight-year-old son and a two-month-old baby.
The couple lives in the tiny house of her grandmother in the Northville resettlement in Mabalacat City, as they have no house of their own.
“My husband takes home P3,000 every 15h and end of the month as basic pay. It’s really difficult to live on that, especially because we have a baby,” Angela said.
But like her husband, Angela said that despite being poor, she would rather have the bag found by her spouse returned to its owner. “It’s harder to be hit by karma,” she stressed.
Angela, however, expressed hope that her husband could find a more stable employment with higher pay.
