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 7 December 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 our ancestors General Sobrino Cawibes, Catholic priest Father Francisco Tolentino Calzado and Congressman Miguel Tolentino were born).

She was left alone in the house 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 US Army, was on his way to Bicolandia.

By the time Camp Aguinaldo was bombed by the Japanese forces, my grandfather had returned home bringing along a huge leather attaché 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 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 said.

My grandparents, Lolo Pereg and Lola Paz, returned the money to the family of Don Juan del Gallego (relative of actresses Heart Evangelista and Jodi Santa Maria), particularly to Doña Potencianna (wife of Don Juan), 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.