ARMM police to honor cop for returning money found in ATM

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines — A rookie police officer assigned to Marawi City will receive a commendation for his honesty in returning thousands of pesos he found in an ATM.

 

Chief Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac, director of the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said on Wednesday that he will give PO1 Jose Angelo Zorilla a special commendation for an act of honesty that gave PRO-ARMM honor.

 

“His example is worth emulating,” Sindac said.

 

Zorilla, son of a retired Army soldier, was on three-day break in Cotabato City last week to visit his family when his dedication as a police officer was put to a test.

 

He was to withdraw an amount from a branch of the Land Bank of the Philippines in Cotabato City when he found paper bills amounting to P20,000 stuck in the cash release window of the ATM. 

 

He also noticed the transaction receipt dangling from the ATM unit. 

 

“I do not come from a wealthy family so I felt outright how important the amount was to its owner. I assumed that its owner could be a teacher, a soldier or a policeman like me,” Zorilla told The STAR on Wednesday via mobile phone from a hostile area in Marawi City as gunshots reverberating in the background.

 

Zorilla turned over the P20,000 to the bank since the amount corresponded to the entry on the release slip he found along with the paper bills.

 

Employees of the LBP branch along Magallanes Street here were elated with his gesture.

 

Zorilla requested Cotabato City's pioneer broadcast outfit, Catholic station dxMS of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate congregation, to help him trace the rightful owner of the money. 

 

“I did not have even the slightest intention of keeping the cash I found because I know God will punish me if I do so,” Zorilla said.

 

Zorilla said his mother, a public school teacher due for retirement, and his father started taught him and his two brothers the value of honesty while they were still children.

 

“The gesture was great. The amount returned was insignificant, but the honesty in him was so immense. I admire this subordinate. We are proud of PO1 Zorilla,” Sindac said.

 

Zorilla is a member of PRO-ARMM’s Regional Public Safety Battalion, which has been helping the military guard strategic areas in Marawi City since May 24.

 

The police battalion, a rapid deployment unit of PRO-ARMM, is based in the region’s police headquarters in Camp S.K. Pendatun in Parang town in Maguindanao.

 

“We were deployed here in Marawi City on May 24, a day after the conflict here erupted,” Zorilla said.

 

He said he misses his wife and two pre-school children who are four hours away in Cotabato City.

 

“I will not let that feeling affect my duties in Marawi City so I can keep my oath to serve and protect people regardless of religions and tribes as a policeman,” he said.

 

Zorilla, who joined the Philippine National Police in 2012, has two brothers — one in the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and the other in the Philippine Air Force.