Marco Polo Hotel resident manager Mr. Xavier Masson (left) awards certificates and cash to taxi drivers Boyet Beato (second from left), Leonilo Harina, Eddie Catingub (center) and Nicanor Agustin (third from right). At right is Consul Bobby Joseph. (CDN PHOTO/CHRISTIAN MANINGO)
FOUR taxi drivers were given cash incentives yesterday at Marco Polo Plaza for returning valuables left behind by their passengers.
They were Boyet Beato (Tiger Taxi), Agustin Nacor (CTC Taxi), Eddie Catingub (Jaganz Taxi) and Leonilo Harina (Van System Taxi).
In yesterday’s 888 News Forum, Marco Polo’s resident manager Xavier Masson handed P1,000 each to the drivers.
“We recognize people who are honest and who came back all the way here (to the hotel) to return the items,” Masson said.
Beato recalled that a week ago, he picked up three three passengers from Marco Polo Plaza who went to Ayala Center Cebu.
After they got off and he was about to pick up a new passenger, he noticed a small power bank at the backseat.
“I thought it was a cellphone. I didn’t know what a power bank looks like,”Beato said.
A taxi driver for the past six years, Beato lives in barangay San Isidro, Talisay City. It wasn’t the first time he had returned a passenger’s cellphone, he said.
Nacor returned an Apple laptop of a couple that he picked up from a hotel going to Chateu de Busay.
“I also double check when passengers disembark from the cab to make sure that they did not leave anything,” he said.
He said doing this helps him earn the trust of his passengers.
Because of his honesty, the gratfeful couple from New Zealand helped Nacor build a new home for his family.
“Before, I lived in a squatters’ area, but now I have a new home,” Nacor said.
A native of San Vicente, Liloan town in northern Cebu, the 46-year old Nacor has been a taxi driver for 26 years.
Catingub, meanwhile, returned a cellphone to an Arab passenger.
“I found it at the back seat. I was sure that he owned so I brought it back to the hotel and recorded it in the logbook,” Catingub said.
Harina told reporters that he returned a phone, shoes and a swimsuit to his passengers in three separate incidents.
After receiving P1,000 from Marco Polo, Consul General Robert Lim Joseph gave P3,000 to each driver.