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Updated SEPTEMBER 8, 2001

MOO-iro in HOUSTON COW PARADE

September 5, 2001 - My friend CAMILO DUMLAO and his family recently participated in the HOUSTON COW PARADE, a public art exhibit and civic project aimed at raising funds for the expansion of a Houston Children's hospital. Camilo and wife Christine together with their kids Pam, Nick and Gabo were very excited in creating the paper mache cow and making an art object out of it. They appropriately called it "MOO-IRO" (in reference to the Spanish painter Joan Miro).

The Houston CowParade starts today, Sept. 5 and lasts until November. All the entries will be displayed at various public places in Houston and subsequently bidded out. Camilo's entry is sponsored by the Prime Asset Management and Chase Towers. It is now on display at the CHASE tower, the tallest building in the US southwest.

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An Honest FilipinA

Not all news from the Philippines are bad. Taking a respite from news of calamities, kidnappings and other shameful events, a lowly janitress became an instant Filipino heroine when she did an act of honesty despite her current financial difficulties.

FLOR MONDOYO, a janitress earning only P180 a day returned without any hint of hesitation an envelope containing $10,000 cash (roughly P.5 million) left behind in the pre-departure area of the Manila Domestic Airport last June 25 by two Indian nationals.

Flor earned the praise of her colleagues at the airport. But she did not get any thanks from Indian nationals Nedhal Alohalain and Abdul Hakeem Aman who had left the envelope containing the money on a seat in the pre-departure area about 10 a.m. Monday. The two were bound for Baguio City.

Upon seeing the envelop, Flor immediately turned it over to the terminal operations officer Dina de Leon and was surprised when told that it contained a large amount of money in crisp $100 bills. De Leon had peeked at the sealed envelope and saw the money.  

But it was Mondoyo herself who spotted the owners of the money. She saw Alohalain and Aman at the pre-departure area apparently looking for something. The two also looked very worried. Mondoyo asked De Leon, the duty officer of the terminal’s paging section, to page the owner of an envelope that was left behind.

The two Indians went to the paging section and claimed the envelope. They said they had already boarded an Asian Spirit plane bound for Baguio City when they learned that the envelope containing the money was missing. In their haste to get back to the plane, they failed to even thank Flor on the spot for returning the envelope. An airline crew confirmed that the envelope contained $10,000.

After she returned the envelope, Flor got a P300 reward from the Indian owners of misplaced dollars. Flor, who is only a contractual employee, however readily shared the reward money with her colleagues. She obviously felt she did not deserve the money because, as she would maintain, she was only doing her job.

Asked why she returned the misplaced dollars, a fortune in most people’s standard, the soft-spoken Flo simply said: "It wasn’t mine."

But for her act of honesty, Flor, the eldest of six children and the family’s breadwinner, is reaping her well-deserved rewards.

Last June 27, airport general manager Edgardo Manda awarded Flor P5,000 cash and P2,000 in gift certificates. Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon also gave Flor P5,000 cash.

The shy janitress received the reward and praise from her superiors and colleagues clad in her yellow uniform. Pleased with Flor’s honesty, Manda also offered the janitress a two-year scholarship grant and a permanent job at the airport. Manda said that Flor’s "act of honesty is a big boost to the tourism industry. At least, tourists know that something good is happening at the airports. Honesty is the one that we value. Honesty pays."

Dr. James Dy, president of Filipino-Chinese Charitable Association, also offered Flor full-time employment at the Chinese General Hospital and Medical Center. Not only that. Dy also said Flor could ride a Super Ferry ship free of charge for life to go to her village in Palawan and return to Manila.

Flor, who rents an apartment inside the Villamor Air Base, only wants one thing for now. She hopes to see her parents and siblings in Palawan. She wants to tell them of her newfound fortune in the city.

Despite the cash rewards, Flor probably got the biggest reward of her life when she got the offer of permanent employment at the airport. Flor reminds of another honest Filipino, a taxi driver who gained national prominence a few years ago when he returned an envelop also containing large sums of money to its foreign owner. In return he got a new taxi unit for himself as a reward from the authorities.

So not all Filipinos are kidnappers, drug lords, liars, rapists, drunkards, womanizers, plunderers, etc....There are still a lot of them with an honest soul.....

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