MARITES PEREZ GALAM, 33, head waitress at Imperial Herbal Restaurant in Singapore, found “gold” in a rest room, fought the temptation to keep it, and helped return it to its owner.
The owner, an Indonesian mother who was accompanying her deaf son to Singapore for a surgery, couldn’t thank her enough.
In a long-distance phone interview with INQUIRER.net, Galam said this was how it happened:
At about 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, during her second shift, she stepped out of her work area to go to the common rest room of the VivoCity shopping mall. In the cubicle she used, she saw the raggedy gold wallet on top of the tissue box.
“Pero di mo talaga pag-iinteresan kasi lumang-luma na, naagnas na, at sira na. Flat din sya (You won’t really take any interest in it because it was very old, worn to shreds, and scruffy. It was also flat),” she said.
When she inspected the wallet, it contained S$16,600 (P485,085) wrapped in a white sheet of paper. Even then, she wasn’t blinded by the money.
“Hindi kasi akin (It wasn’t mine),” she told the Chinese Singaporean mall manager to whom she surrendered her find.
An hour and a half later, the owner of the money, accompanied by her son and the mall manager, came to her and hugged her.
While Galam couldn’t completely understand what the Indonesian mother was saying, she could feel the gratitude in her tears and her embrace.
“I think she tried to say thank you and God bless you,” she said in Filipino.
Philippine Ambassador to the city-state Belen Fule-Anota later met with Galam and commended her for the deed.
The envoy said Galam is a model for the thousands of Filipinos who work and live in Singapore: hardworking, self-sacrificing, and honest.
Her story also saw its way to a Chinese magazine in Singapore.
Galam’s husband, who is also in Singapore, is still trying to find work. The Galam couple, originally of Nueva Vizcaya province, left their four children — ages ranging from 4 to 15 years old — October last year to earn more money so that they would lead a decent life.
With her deed, she already showed them how.
(1 Singapore Dollar = 30.31778 Philippine Peso)
Veronica Uy, INQUIRER.net, 09/20/07
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