Sanitation workers sort out credit cards and IDs after retrieving wallets from a drain.

Philippines sanitation workers unblocking a drain discovered dozens of wallets had been clogging it up, some containing credit cards and IDs, but no money.

A man working near the scene shot video footage showing the workers in a village in Batangas city, south of the capital Manila, sorting through wallets and removing and laying out items including identity cards found in them.

Police officer Mario David, who went to investigate what he suspected were stolen items, said many of the wallets were pulled out from deep in the drain, meaning they had been there for a long time.

None of them contained any money.

The items were turned over to police so they could identify and alert the owners who were likely victims of pickpockets, David said.