My story happened in 2015 when I was assigned to the hectic Pandacan Branch. One sunny afternoon, one of our regular clients, a very simple and down-to-earth soft drink distributor, came the branch for his usual deposit transaction. He entrusted the money to me as he needed to be elsewhere to attend to his wedding preparations. Without hesitation, I counted and tallied the money that he delivered to me as he left the branch. After counting, I realized that there was a huge amount of overages in both bags that he had given. The first bag had an overage of almost Php 129,000.00; the second bag had an excess of Php 74,000.00. I checked twice and thrice, but these were really the amount of overages. 

I immediately called our client to inform him of this. It took me several tries to reach him; my initial calls using the branch telephone were unsuccessful. After what felt like an hour of trying to contact him, he finally answered his phone! 

He was shocked by the significant amount of excess. According to his log sheet, his account was balanced. He was so grateful for my honesty. “Hindi ko in expect na ibabalik mo pa yung sobrang pera na nasa bag. Maraming salamat talaga!” After his endless thanks, we resolved to add the overages to his account the next day.   

The following morning, the client came in, announcing his praises of me. He approached me and said, “Sir, thank you for being honest! I did not know the amount was that big, but you still gave it back to me!” 

I replied with a simple, “It’s yours, not mine, Sir!” 

 Overhearing us, the other clients were looking at me, smiling as well. The client came back that afternoon and surprised us with a big box of pizza. I called to thank him for the food, and he said that was his simple way of thanking me for the good that I have done. 

I truly felt that I upheld the UnionBank name with my act of INTEGRITY. People would ask me what made me not take even a little of the money as it would go unnoticed anyway. I told them, “Banking is a business of trust. Hindi ko naman yun ginawa para mapabida ako. Yung actions ko ay magiging reflection din sa kung anong klaseng kumpanya ang UnionBank. Malalaman din ng mga tao na ang UnionBank ay isang trustworthy bank.”