JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia – A Filipino overseas worker applied what his father taught him by returning 1.2 million Saudi riyals he found in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

"This is what my father has been telling us since childhood, that honesty is the best policy,” said Lark Michael Colegado, a maintenance technician for the Security Systems of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) based in Jeddah.

Colegado was performing routine machine maintenance in Tabuk on October 6, 2009 when he discovered an ATM cassette filled with money. The cassette should have been inserted into the ATM’s cash dispenser but was instead left beside the machine.

The cassette with its security tags was labeled to contain 2,500 pieces of 500 SAR Bills.

"The money is not mine. It’s not hard earned money. It has to be returned. If a person has the intention to keep that money, it could have been so easy. But it’s wrong," said

He immediately called up an ATM engineer in that area to get information about the ATM’s custodian. A security van with three staff from that company arrived five minutes later.
 
The company’s cash dispenser loader inserted the cassette immediately after removing the security tag.

"It could have been that the personnel who was supposed to insert the cassette full of money had forgotten about it,” the company’s cash dispenser loader said.

Colegado has been in Saudi Arabia with his family for six years now. "I have been dreaming for money for the future but not this way. With that amount, I should earn it for the next 350 years," he said.

Fellow Filipinos lauded his good deed. Fely Holgado, a secretary of King Faisal Hospital said: "I salute him for his honesty.”

Holgada said that despite the crisis that Filipinos face, it did not stop Colegado from doing what is right.

"When I grow up, I want to be an honest person like my Daddy," Colegado’s five-year-old daughter said.

Johari Usman, a group leader of Organization here in Jeddah, personally congratulated Colegado for his deeds.

"Colegado is an example of truly Pinoy, who stand by the principles he learned from his parents," said Usman.

Richard Nicolasora, an I.T. specialist of Saudi Arabian Marketing Agencies and Co. Ltd said Colegado deserves to be rewarded for his honesty. “This is the type of person we need in our society," he added.