MANILA, 28 November — Who says honesty is a long-forgotten value among the police?

On Monday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), two members of the Airport Police Department disproved the impression they are crooks and thieves.

The honest cops returned a backpack containing cash and jewelry worth more than 500,000 pesos from an arriving passenger.

Gualberto Jacobe, of Urdaneta, Pangasinan, was speechless and overwhelmed with joy when police officers Virgilio Dinong and Ricardo Manalo handed him his backpack he accidentally left in a transport loading counter in his hurry to get home.

Jacobe, who was a jockey during his prime, arrived yesterday from Saudi Arabia where he worked as a horse trainer for more than a year.

A vacation first timer, he said he bought the pieces of jewelry out of his savings for his wife, mother and in-laws.

Dinong and Manalo, when asked by the press said the first thing the entered their minds was to return the bag after seeing it.

They sought and searched the owner but after more than 30 minutes of searching, nobody claimed the bag so they decided to keep it in a safe waiting for the owner.

Jacobe returned to the airport at noontime the next day and looked for the bag. After making sure that Jacobe was the real owner of the bag, the policemen returned it to him intact.

"I thought I would never see my bag again. I’m glad that there are still honest policemen like officers Dinong and Manalo who did not think twice in returning what did not belong to them. May their tribe increase. They are the pride of the airport police," said an elated Jacobe.

It was not the first time that passengers, many of them OFWs, have left personal belongings at the airport. Many are not as lucky as Jacobe.

Diosdado Angala of Zambales, who worked as a cook in Jeddah, told Arab News that she accidentally left a handbag at the Duty Free Shop with his tickets and money sent by his friends to their families in the Philippines.

Angala said he not only lost the bag but also his friends who suspected that he embezzled their money.