7 June 2009
A lowly Pinay OFW who showed remarkable honesty in returning to its owner a considerable sum of money while scrounging in a Hongkong trash bin should serve as a standard in choosing our country's next leaders come 2010.
Based on this Inquirer article, she found and returned $176,000 in cash (in denomination of $1,000) and four checks" of various amounts. She found the money stuffed in a small packet in a garbage bin on the corner of Pottinger Street and Des Voeux Road on May 29 and returned it the following day after contacting the owner.
This Pinay heroine is Mildred Perez, a native of Sitio Anao, Barangay Aliaga in Bambang, Nueva Viscaya who was forced to resort to scrounging in Hongkong after her employer reportedly assaulted her sexually. She filed a case against her alleged assailant which left her without a job (Hongkong law prohibits Perez from taking up employment during the pendency of her case) forcing her to resort to scrounging to sustain herself while pursuing her legal case in Hongkong.
Here is Mildred's heart-warming story of honesty and integrity and faith and courage told in these GMA 7 video reports via GMAnews.tv:
Mildred's honesty and that of her tricycle driver husband Eddie who himself reportedly returned a bag containing P20,000 to a passenger (please see this GMAnews.tv article), have not gone unrewarded. Nueva Vizcaya Congressman Carlos Padilla said that Congress has passed House Resolution 1212 commending Mildred Perez. The same GMAnews.tv article says:
Padilla, who helped raised some money, confirmed that a P100,000 financial support for Mildred’s family is now ready on top of the P50,000, which will be coming from the provincial government and additional financial support from Mayor Benjamin Cuaresma of Bambang town.Eddie was also offered a job at the provincial office of the Department of Public Works and Highways.Mildred is now waiting for the schedule of her trip back to the country with the help of the Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong
I know that Mildred Perez will become an iconic figure of our time, a woman who typifies the best in every Filipina, who continues to battle the odds and comes out on top not in terms of earthly riches or worldly power but in the infinitely greater measure of basic decency, human dignity and unequaled respect in the eyes of her fellow Filipinos.
We can teach our children to aspire for high things such as becoming President of the Philippines, or Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, or a Senator of the Republic or we can teach them to aspire for something much better, something that will make them truly blessed — to have character, decency, faith and courage like that of a Filipina named Mildred Perez.
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