Honest cop returns wallet containing peso, dollar bills
Published Apr 27, 2019 06:16 pm
By Aaron Recuenco
Amid the series of arrests of erring cops for extortion racket ranging from iPhone to as low as P1,000 cash, this police officer clearly spelled out what the word integrity really means.
Police Lieutenant Rashid Jabbar S. Gozon (PHOTO COURTESY OF MIMAROPA PNP PIO / MANILA BULLETIN)
This is Police Lieutenant Rashid Jabbar S. Gozon’s good deed story.
While he was waiting for a vessel to ferry him back to Mindoro on the night of April 19, Gozon found a wallet under the row of chairs near where he was sitting at the Batangas City seaport.
One’s instinct is to open the wallet either to identify the owner for honest intention of returning it, or check if there is cash and other valuable items that could be kept.
But Gozon resisted the temptation of opening the wallet and instead went to the operator of the public address system to announce that a wallet was found.
On his mind, verification of the real owner could be done later when they, along with some seaport authorities as witnesses, would both open the wallet.
“He immediately made an effort to locate the owner by using the public address system in the area to inform anyone who had lost a wallet but nobody reported,” said Lt. Col. Socrates Faltado, spokesman of the MIMAROPA (Mindoro Occidental and Oriental, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) regional police.
Gozon still waited for some time for a person to appear and realizing that it was already boarding time, he then decided to open it in an effort to find any identification card to personally contact the owner.
He saw the money but again opted to ignore it and instead focused on the identification cards inside.
“He opened the wallet and identified the owner through his company identification card,” said Faltado.
The name was Roy Soriano Lacsa, a resident of Barangay San Carlos, Rosario, Batangas and purser officer of Montenegro Shipping Lines Inc.
“Lieutenant Gozon contacted the attached number in the identification card, where he validated the true owner of the wallet, and after which, arranged to meet the owner of the wallet and a proper turnover of the missing item at PRO MIMAROPA Headquarters in Calapan City,” he added.
Gozon and Lacsa met on Thursday (April 25) and it was then that the wallet was turned over in front of other policemen.
The wallet contains P33,000, $10 bill, and assorted documents. The owner confirmed that they are exactly the same content—no more, no less— when he lost the wallet.
Lacsa told the police that he was surprised when he was contacted for the return of the wallet. Nawalan na ako ng pag-asa na maibalik pa sa akin ang pera, mabuti nalang at may mabuting pulis na nakapulot kaya naibalik sa akin ng walang kulang,” said Lacsa.
“Sana ay marami pa ang katulad niyo Sir, maraming salamat po,” Lacsa told Gozon.
Gozon is currently assigned at the Regional Mobile Force Battalion as the Chief of Operations Section. He is a native of Palawan.
Police Lieutenant Rashid Jabbar S. Gozon (PHOTO COURTESY OF MIMAROPA PNP PIO / MANILA BULLETIN)
This is Police Lieutenant Rashid Jabbar S. Gozon’s good deed story.
While he was waiting for a vessel to ferry him back to Mindoro on the night of April 19, Gozon found a wallet under the row of chairs near where he was sitting at the Batangas City seaport.
One’s instinct is to open the wallet either to identify the owner for honest intention of returning it, or check if there is cash and other valuable items that could be kept.
But Gozon resisted the temptation of opening the wallet and instead went to the operator of the public address system to announce that a wallet was found.
On his mind, verification of the real owner could be done later when they, along with some seaport authorities as witnesses, would both open the wallet.
“He immediately made an effort to locate the owner by using the public address system in the area to inform anyone who had lost a wallet but nobody reported,” said Lt. Col. Socrates Faltado, spokesman of the MIMAROPA (Mindoro Occidental and Oriental, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) regional police.
Gozon still waited for some time for a person to appear and realizing that it was already boarding time, he then decided to open it in an effort to find any identification card to personally contact the owner.
He saw the money but again opted to ignore it and instead focused on the identification cards inside.
“He opened the wallet and identified the owner through his company identification card,” said Faltado.
The name was Roy Soriano Lacsa, a resident of Barangay San Carlos, Rosario, Batangas and purser officer of Montenegro Shipping Lines Inc.
“Lieutenant Gozon contacted the attached number in the identification card, where he validated the true owner of the wallet, and after which, arranged to meet the owner of the wallet and a proper turnover of the missing item at PRO MIMAROPA Headquarters in Calapan City,” he added.
Gozon and Lacsa met on Thursday (April 25) and it was then that the wallet was turned over in front of other policemen.
The wallet contains P33,000, $10 bill, and assorted documents. The owner confirmed that they are exactly the same content—no more, no less— when he lost the wallet.
Lacsa told the police that he was surprised when he was contacted for the return of the wallet. Nawalan na ako ng pag-asa na maibalik pa sa akin ang pera, mabuti nalang at may mabuting pulis na nakapulot kaya naibalik sa akin ng walang kulang,” said Lacsa.
“Sana ay marami pa ang katulad niyo Sir, maraming salamat po,” Lacsa told Gozon.
Gozon is currently assigned at the Regional Mobile Force Battalion as the Chief of Operations Section. He is a native of Palawan.