Going the extra mile: Motorcycle taxi rider returns reporter’s laptop (2025)

MANILA, Philippines — After dropping off a forgetful passenger to Bacoor City in Cavite, motorcycle taxi driver Eddie Daquiz carried on with his usual picking up and dropping off of other ride hailers.

He picked up news reporter Hannah Ty from her workplace in Quezon City around 8 p.m. Friday (April 11).

But it was already midnight when Daquiz, who was already in Marikina City that time, realized that Ty left her laptop. It was encased in a brown leather case placed in his motorcycle’s top box.

Despite being tired from an entire day’s ride and already near his Antipolo City home, Daquiz said he still wanted to return the item at once.

“I was trying to call her around 12 midnight because I want to return it,” he told INQUIRER.net over the phone on Wednesday. He also left a text message informing her about it.

Clueless

Ty did not answer his calls.

Upon reaching home, she had a shower before throwing herself in the bed, then dozed off.

She woke up with a text and missed a call from the rider.

“I only saw it the next morning, still clueless that I had even lost it,” Ty said.

Daquiz offered to drop the valuable item off to her office in Quezon City, which Ty immediately accepted.

“He even said sorry!” Ty told INQUIRER.net in an interview.

When the rider then dropped off the item on Saturday (April 12) noon, he was surprised that a man whom Ty asked to receive the item on her behalf gave him P1,500 for his effort.

“I messaged Ma’am Hannah, then I told her, ‘Ma’am, I’ll return the money, this is too big an amount’,” Daquiz said.

“She doesn’t want to accept it,” he added, noting that Ty said she doesn’t have an e-wallet account where he could send the amount back — in an apparent white lie.

No big deal

It was no big deal for Daquiz, who always returns any valuable items left by his passengers as he usually does.

“I don’t even look at its contents; I just return it,” he said, adding that he has done it “many times” already.

There was even a time, he said, when he returned without hesitation the wallet of a Korean passenger with a thick wad of cash inside.

READ:NAIA porter Victor Perez returns $10,000 worth of lost cash to traveler

Daquiz, who is supporting four children, said he was never tempted not to return the items.

“I have a fear of God,” the 42-year-old said. “I am a born again Christian.”

Daquiz said he’s always reminded of Jesus Christ’s words in Matthew 22 when he said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’…” and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’.”

“Those words, I always apply it to my life,” he said.