Even as informal workers struggle to survive the economic impacts of the pandemic, a tricycle driver turned over to authorities a wallet that contained over P10,000 which he found near a sidewalk in Tagbilaran City.

The wallet was eventually retrieved by the owner, a student who needed the cash to pay for his tuition.

According to Rey Ocul, 33, the wallet’s owner Christian Paul Baldisco, who had just picked up the cash from a pawnshop was elated to get his money back.

Baldisco rewarded Ocul with P200, which the driver initial turned down but eventually accepted as the former insisted.

“Nalipay siya kay iya man kuno tong pangbayad sa tuition, diha pa man gani toy resibo gikan sa Palawan,” said Ocul. “

Ocul explained that he found the wallet along CPG Avenue in Tagbilaran City on Wednesday afternoon and immediately turned it over to the City Traffic Management Office (CTMO), where Baldico shortly after claimed the lost item.

Ocul, a father of three children, said it never crossed his mind to keep the money for himself.

“Drive lang kog tricycle, pamilyado ko pero wa ko mag ambisyon og ngana kay luoy kaayo timingan og ako puy ngana mawad-an magproblema pud ko,” Ocul said.

“Yamo bisag gamay sa akong huna-huna kay kahibaw ko naa koy mga bata, gabaan unya ta simbako lang,” he added.

It was not the first time that Ocul, who has been a tricycle driver for 14 years, returned a lost item and money.

Ocul recalled having given back cash and a bag to two of his passengers who left their belongings in his tricycle in the past.

“Ika daghan na ko ana pero personal nako giuli, diha puy kas-a diha sa DYRD akong giuli kadtong bag gikan sa airport,” said Ocul. (A. Doydora)