THE SWEETS and snacks inside a simple, wooden cabinet at a corner of the MVP Basement are up for grabs—unless an Atenean is honest enough to pay for them.
Named the “Honesty Store,” the unmanned cabinet is a project initiated by the Ens. Phillip Andrew A. Pestaño Foundation, and hosted by the Ateneo Student Leaders Assembly (ASLA). This is the first Honesty Store established by the foundation.
Aside from the goodies, the cabinet also contains a cash box, where buyers can drop their payments if they wish to do so.
The Honesty Store was inaugurated August 1 and has been open to the community since.
The store is a legacy to Pestaño’s pursuit for honesty and justice, said Emmanuel Velasco (BS ME ’93), a member of the Pestaño Foundation’s Board of Directors, and Pestaño’s high school batch mate.
“I hope through the Honesty Store, his actions would be kept alive,” he said.
Keeping the legacy alive
Pestaño “died for a much deeper cause—he was trying to preserve the integrity of our Armed Forces,” said Fr. James Reuter, SJ, in an article titled “Justice at 3 AM” that circulated through email.
Pestaño, for whom the foundation is named after, graduated 1989 from Ateneo de Manila High School.
He became an Ensign at the Navy, and was killed September 27, 1995, for refusing to approve illegal cargo on a ship.
Even though the Supreme Court announced his death as murder, the Navy still keeps the death on record as suicide.
‘Social experiment’
The Honesty Store also teaches the youth to be “everyday heroes” in small, ordinary acts, which is similar to ASLA’s thrust on everyday leadership.
ASLA Vice President for Communication and Technology Gabriel Martin Doller (III AB Eu) said the Honesty Store is a challenge for Ateneans. “There are a lot of people who criticize the Atenean of today as someone who is all porma (style) and no values,” he said. “This is a concrete challenge.”
“It’s an interesting idea because it’s a social experiment,” said Jessica Mendoza (III AB Comm). “It’s nice and it’s also convenient.”
Richard de Guzman, an Office of Student Activities professional, said the Honesty Store “is not really an entrepreneurial activity, but more of a social experiment, which really wants to measure the honesty of people here in our community.”
Vice President Ma. Assunta Cuyegkeng, Ph.D., who attended the Honesty Store’s ribbon-cutting, hopes the project will promote honesty in life and not just in buying things. “I think we would like to reinforce the fact that we [shouldn’t do] the right things only because somebody’s watching us,” she said.
Velasco said the store is something that tests one’s character. He said, “With little examples of this, you slowly hone a belief system, a character, a value that you will live by as you grow even older.”
“This is like a drop that creates a ripple and we hope that it will become a wave…a culture amongst Ateneans,” he added.
Fill and refill
Project Head Joshua Tan (III AB MEco) said the Pestaño Foundation will manage the money generated from the Honesty Store. It will also be in charge of replenishing the store’s contents.
Proceeds from the store will be used as funding for educational assistance for the children of deceased military personnel. The funds will also be used for projects by the PMA (Philippine Military Academy) MAALAB Class of 1993, and the Ateneo de Manila High School Class Batch of 1989.
Tan said that the Honesty Store will last for only 30 days due to constraints from the school administration. “[However], if we feel that it’s successful, then we will push to extend. If not, we may consider closing.”
