BAGUIO CITY – A 30-year old taxi driver from Rosario, La Union had once again proven that honesty is the best policy after he will be given a chance to have a guaranteed job in Australia when he returned to an Australian national the luggage that the latter left inside his taxi several days ago.
Reggie Cabutotan, 30, married, and a taxi driver from Rosario, La Union, did not expect that his simple act of giving back to the owner the luggage that he rightfully own will eventually change the living condition of his family once he will be able to complete his training in the city.
“I was surprised to receive information from my operator that I have to be present in city hall early Monday morning. I did not expect that I will receive a surprise of my life from what I think was a simple thing that I had done in returning the luggage of my Australian passenger,” Cabutotan, a taxi driver in the city for over 6 years now, stressed.
Cabutotan, who is married to a housewife with four young children, relies on driving a taxi as his source of livelihood and that he comes to the city every other day to drive the taxi owned by an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) from Victoria Village Barangay.
Trent Shields, an Australian bachelor businessman, handed over to Cabutotan a certificate grating him a P220,000 6-month scholarship in a local training academy based in Kalye Uno and with a guaranteed job to work in a Coder Factory Academy in Australia after his training with a starting salary of P1.7 million yearly.
Shields claimed that in the early morning of January 21, 2017, he boarded Cabutotan’s taxi from Navy Base and bound for Kalye Uno, the only co-working place in the city, located along 1st Road Quezon Hill.
He narrated that he immediately alighted from the taxi after paying his fare without taking his things with him. While he was in the co-working place, he noticed that his luggage is no longer with him that prompted him and his colleagues to decide to go and report the matter to the nearest police station.
For his part, Cabutotan claimed he decided to look for a place to urinate in an uninhabited area along the roadline and when he boarded his Dustin Brand taxi, he noticed the luggage that was left inside his vehicle, thus, he immediately proceeded to the place where the Australian national dropped.
Upon arrival in Kalye Uno, Shields and his companions were about to move out to go to the nearest police station were instead met by a smiling Cabutotan who was holding the luggage that was left and immediately handed the Australian national the things that he left inside his vehicle.
Shields claimed the items that he left inside Cabutotan’s taxi had a value of several millions which is considered to him as valuable, including his pertinent documents that he needs for his transactions while in the country.
“The scholarship granted to the taxi driver is a gesture of expressing my gratitude to Cabutotan for the big thing that he has done in returning my luggage that is valuable on my part,” Shields added.
He claimed the scholarship will involve a business entrepreneurship combined with software development trainings for a 6-month period that will allow Cabutotan to work with his Coder Factory Academy in Sydney, Australia once he will be able to successfully complete the prescribed course.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan commended the heroic act of Cabutotan in sustaining the practice of honesty because it will sustain the city’s identity as a home of honest taxi drivers.
“We are proud of Cabutotan’s heroic act because it again proves that we were able to sustain inculcating to the minds of our tourism frontliners the importance of being honest to help attract the influx of more visitors to our city,” Domogan stressed.
Domogan encouraged public utility vehicle drivers in the city to emulate the good deed that Cabutotan was able to display because it would be an added factor to them in sustaining the influx of visitors that will improve their sources of livelihood.
By Dexter A. See
You are a good man Reggie Cabutotan. Congratulations for the rewards that you so deserve. You are another testimony that Honesty is the best policy. You are the exact opposite of the person who found my lost wallet recently then went out using my credit cards to make purchases. For sure, he or she will also get his/her reward in due time for his/her bad decision/s.
Great news to hear, wish you all the best for the future.