Honesty is still and will always be the best policy.

       A boy of eleven who comes from a poor family believes this and did something about it.  He turned over to the Dagupan City police a bag he found containing P18,000 cash.

The young boy, Gicoven Abarquez, a resident of Perez Market Site regularly gathers plastic bottles in the downtown area and sells them to augment their family income.

It was during one of his regular rounds, on his way to school, Gicoven, nicknamed Gangga, found the bag.

He said he turned it over to the police because his parents have taught him never to keep something that is not his.

And Gangga’s good deed has not gone unrewarded.

The police gave the boy a citation during the flag-raising ceremony Monday and gifts have since been pouring in for him and his family, including food, vitamins, clothes and cash.

He was invited to the House of Representatives in Quezon City on Thursday to receive a citation and “special gift “ from no less than his citymate, House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr.

Gangga sheepishly told The PUNCH that he was overwhelmed by all the rewards and citations.

His mother, Maria, a bagoong factory worker, said she is proud of her son and that the rewards must be “God’s way of reciprocating our good deeds”.

“I told Gang that no matter how small a work done, the reward will be big in a manner only God knows,” said Maria in the dialect.

Her husband, Benito, 48, earns a living buying and selling chicken around Pangasinan.

“We are really poor but I am proud of the fact that though we only normally eat just salt and rice, we live in an honest way,” said Maria in the dialect.

The Dagupan City Police, under police chief Superintendent Dionicio Borromeo, has made Gangga its scholar and provided him with school supplies.

The police will screen claimants of the money but it the real owner does not step forward, the police will give the money to the Abarquez family. #