4 NEWS
4 NEWS
THE MESSAGE . BRINGING INTO FOCUS FILIPINO PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA www . kalatas . com . au | Volume 7 Number 5 | FEBRUARY 2017
IN THE NEWS ... PHILIPPINES
All in an honest day ’ s work
Taxi driver heads for Oz
This news was trending last month . It was one of those kind of feel good news that , yes , a good deed pays . This year , an honest Pinoy cabbie heads to Australia to take a scholarship reward after his rather life-changing encounter with an Australian businessman .
Baguio City driver Reggie Cabututan drove Australian Trent Shields to the Calle Uno in the city but the Australian left his luggage in the cab . The passenger would later realise he had just lost his passport , laptop and money .
But not with driver Reggie . According to 9news . com , Mr Shields and his friend Ace Estrada , president of a BPO training company , was just about to head to the police station to report the incident when they spotted Reggie pulling up in his taxi .
The driver had looked for Mr . Shields to return the bag he left in the cab .
“ Never was a sight more welcome than the smiling face of this driver ,” Mr Estrada wrote on Facebook , where he recalled the event .
To honour the driver , the Vivixx Academy of Baguio and Coder Factory Academy of Australia decided to award him with a Certificate of Scholarship , valued at $ 5800 , for a Coding Boot Camp in June .
“ When he completes the course , he is guaranteed an internship with an Australian company , leading to a job that will pay him a starting salary of up to 1.7 million ( Philippine ) pesos ( A $ 44,836 ) per year ,” Mr Estrada said .
Mr . Shields , meanwhile , was truly grateful with Reggie ’ s good deed . He opened up a ‘ gofundme ’ page to further help Reggie .
“ It would be great if we could turn the good will generated by this story into broader impact … I wanted to give everyone an opportunity to help out Reggie as well . He currently lives in an unfinished home and has no laptop from which to learn . If everyone just donated the price of a short taxi fare we could provide a completed home for himself , his wife and his four kids to live in ,” Mr . Shields said in a recent Facebook post .
SINULOG AT PLUMPTON
Devotees of the Sto . Nino trooped to the Good Shepherd Parish in Plumpton last month to join the annual colourful Sinulog festival . Bringing their special Sto Nino statuettes , the marched and danced in a procession held around the church grounds . The Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana DD , Apostolic Nuncio to Australia . The festive procession was led with the beating of the drums from the Aklan Ati-Atihan group . The Fiesta Day included entertainment , dinner and raffle . The Sinulog fiesta day has been celebrated by the Filipino-Australian community for over two decades now .