EDITORIAL — The literal cash windfall

One year ago one of the most bizarre and memorable incidents to happen in Cebu City took place at the South Road Properties after a money remittance collector drove through that area on his motorcycle.

The zipper of his bag failed and as a result bills of various denominations were scattered on the road. The literal cash windfall was estimated to be between ?3 million to ?4 million. So much money lay for grabs on the road. Like we said in the editorial about that incident, it was a scene from either an action movie or the sweetest of dreams.

People driving through that part of the SRP stopped to pick up the bills, some to return to the collector, but others to enrich themselves. In the end an estimated ?2 million was returned to the collector.

The police had said that those who don’t return the money can be charged for theft. A year after the incident we would like to know if anyone was indeed charged or if all the money was returned eventually.

The criminal aspect of that incident aside, it’s also worth mentioning the silver lining in that cloud of money.

There were those who made off with all the money they could carry and, according to the collector, there were also those who returned the bills with smaller denominations but actually held on to the ?500 and ?1,000 bills they picked up. Considering the situation, they probably considered “finders, keepers” the rule of the day.

However, it’s worth mentioning that most of those who stopped to pick up money did return them to the collector.

We are sure that many of those who stopped to pick up the money to return it had their own issues and problems that the money could have easily solved. However, they were able to resist the temptation of taking money that wasn’t theirs.

It is acts like these that restore our faith in humanity.