A DAY IN OUR HISTORY: MY GRANDPARENTS RETURNED A HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY

DURING THE WAR

BY ROGELIO CONSTANTINO MEDINA

What would you do if you had the opportunity to have plenty of money even if it was not
yours? Would you risk your own life returning the money? And what if it was at the height of
the bombing of Manila during the last world war?

On December 7, 1941 the Pacific War began with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii. The news spread throughout Manila and made the Filipino people panic.

At that time, my paternal grandmother, Paz Calzado Bendicio-Medina, hired a truck worth
P200 to bring her mother and siblings and the children to Tuy, Batangas as an evacuation site
near Balayan (their hometown where ancestors General Sobrino Cawibes, Catholic priest
Father Francisco Tolentino Calzado and Congressman Miguel Tolentino were born). She was
left alone in the house in Manila to accompany her sister Lucia Calzado Bendicio, a teacher,
to return all the books to the school.

At that very moment, my paternal grandfather, Lt. Col. Peregrino Bunye Medina, a captain of
an ocean-going vessel before joining the U.S. Army, was on his way to Bicolandia.

By the time Camp Aguinaldo was bombed by the Japanese forces, my grandfather returned
home bringing along a huge leather attache case. When he opened it and showed it to my
grandmother and a relative who worked as a radio operator at the Bureau of Posts, it was full
of money.

Lt. Col. Medina told his wife that his ship had been bombed by the Japanese and he was
fortunate to save the money which was supposed to be the salary of the people from the Del
Gallego Saw Mill and daily expenses of the Del Gallego family.

The relative was speechless and he told my grandfather not to return the money anymore, to
just lie that the money was also captured by the Japanese.

My grandfather would have been tempted by what his relative had said had not my
grandmother intervened in the conversation. She told him to return the money no matter how
difficult it would be, even if Manila was already being bombed.

My grandmother firmly believed that it was a great sin to God if you became interested in
something that did not belong to you. "Think how many families would go hungry and wouldn't
your conscience bother you?" she remarked.

My grandparents, Lolo Pereg and Lola Paz, returned the money to the family of Don Juan del
Gallego (ancestor of actresses Heart Evangelista and Jodi Sta Maria) who then lived in Dart,
Paco, Manila.
Without expecting anything in return, they risked their lives - aware that they might be caught
by the Japanese who might imprison them.

Inspired by their heroic deed, we have carried their principles in life -- the values of humility,
integrity, dignity and honesty that no amount of money can buy in this world.

The saying that an honest man is the noblest work of God is a truism after all.