Radyo5 searches for the honest Juan

When Reader’s Digest conducted its Cell Phone Honesty Test in cities around the world in the recent past, Manila came out fifth along with Mumbai, India and New York City. Well today, Radyo5 is embarking on the same straight path, looking for the honest Pinoys in our midst through its Gawad Katapatan Awards. The search is through Radyo5’s Wanted sa Radyo. Hosted by Raffy Tulfo and Niña Taduran, the hard-hitting public service radio program recently honored its eighth batch of Gawad Katapatan awardees, who are mostly taxi drivers who seek the assistance of Wanted sa Radyo in looking for the owners of items left behind in their cabs.

Indeed, Filipinos’ honesty is amply demonstrated by these simple but tremendous acts of honesty in returning cash and other valuable items that are lost or left behind by their owners. In an age beset with all kinds of problems of corruption and graft, it’s a breath of fresh air to hear stories of honesty and nobility. Often, the more inspiring ones are those of common people, the everyday Juans who struggle daily to keep up hearth and home and to send their children to school, and yet they have the soundest conscience of all. They know that it’s wrong to take what is not rightfully theirs. Honesty may be the most basic of values taught in nursery school, but few people truly have the strength of character to live by it. Ironically, it is from the so-called “little people” or those less privileged that we hear of uplifting acts of honesty and true pureness of heart.

According to Gladys Lucas, head of Radyo5, the Gawad Katapatan Awards was the brainchild of Raffy Tulfo. Since it was launched in October last year, it has been a monthly segment of Wanted sa Radyo that honors taxi drivers and other individuals who have turned over valuable lost and found items. “Wanted sa Radyo’s advocacy of promoting honesty is very much consistent with Radyo5’s objective of not just bringing news and information but public service as well. Suffice it to say that Wanted sa Radyo completes our ‘todo radio serbisyo’ block in our programming grid. People who lose valuables (especially those they know they left in a taxicab or public transport) tune in to Radyo5 in the hope that their lost item may have been surrendered to the station. The same is true for missing persons,” Lucas said.

Gawad Katapatan has honored 85 honest individuals, who are mostly taxi drivers, for turning over valuable items to Wanted sa Radyo at the Radyo5 station in Novaliches and in the Aksyon Center in Mother Ignacia. The awardees receive the Medalya ng Katapatan, a certificate of honesty and gift packs from the radio program’s sponsors. When TV5’s former president and CEO lawyer Ray Espinosa learned about the project, he himself was inspired by these acts of kindness and to show his support, volunteered to provide cash tokens out of his own pocket.

“The main advocacy of Gawad Katapatan is to promote honesty not only among taxi drivers but also among all citizens of the country, regardless of their job or stature in our society,” Tulfo explained. “Most of the common items that are being turned over are laptop computers and high-end cellphone units. Wallets and bags containing wads of cash are also a regular occurrence. Recently, a taxi driver turned over a baggage containing assorted jewelry amounting to more than P300,000. The biggest cash amount returned to us was a wallet containing $2,000. It was left by an OFW and he was very thankful when the money was returned to him.”

One of the recent Gawad Katapatan awardees is former taxi driver and avid Wanted sa Radyo listener Gerry Gozon, who turned over an iPhone 4S left by his passenger. Soon after he returned the smartphone, he found a new job as a family driver. Another awardee is UV Express driver Perry Escamillas, who surrendered to Wanted sa Radyo a Samsung Galaxy Note he found at their Quezon Ave. terminal. It was not the first time that Escamillas demonstrated honesty because he has also reported other items of value that he found in the past.

Like Escamillas, taxi driver Walter Ramos has also taken on the habit of asking Wanted sa Radyo’s assistance in finding the owners of items he finds in his taxicab. He has become one of the program’s notable Gawad Katapatan awardees for turning over a passport, Samsung Galaxy Y, motorcycle plate and a wallet containing P1,700 cash. He admits that he considers Wanted sa Radyo as the quickest way to get in touch with the owners of his found items and he also encourages his fellow drivers to do the same with the items left behind by their passengers.

Even those who return items of smaller value are acknowledged by Wanted sa Radyo. They may not be conferred with the Gawad Katapatan award, but the radio program makes sure they are mentioned and recognized for their honesty. “The Gawad Katapatan award is given to someone who turned over something of high value. People who turned over, say, a cellphone that has a value of P500 or a wallet that contains P100 are not qualified for the award but are repeatedly acknowledged in the show. We know that these people turned over such items not for the award but simply because they are honest and do not expect anything in return for the honesty. They are contented and happy to hear their names being acknowledged on the show,” Tulfo noted.

Indeed, when cynicism and skepticism take the better of us at times; hearing the brave tales of our compatriots, no matter what their station in life is, in upholding what is true and moral in these times is not only to be inspired; but to be truly proud of being Pinoy.