Kuliglig drivers hold peaceful protest at Mendiola

One week after a violent dispersal of their rally that injured at least 12 people, drivers of kuliglig (motorized pedicabs) held another protest action Thursday at the Don Chino Roces Bridge near Malacañang. Unlike last week's protest, Thursday morning’s action was relatively as police kept their distance after setting up barricades at the bridge more popularly known as Mendiola, radio dzBB's Carlo Mateo reported. The dzBB report said some 50 kuliglig drivers and supporters went to Mendiola from nearby Morayta Street. Drivers and sympathizers made a loud clangor with empty pots and cauldrons to dramatize their "hunger" after the city government banned them from the city's main streets starting Dec. 1. According to them, they lost their main means of livelihood and could no longer feed their families. "Yung mga anak ng kuliglig drivers, halos hindi na nakakapasok sa eskwela dahil imbis na ibabaon nila, ipinangtatawid na lang gutom," Fernando Picorro, spokesperson of the Alyansa ng Nagkakaisang Pedicab at Kuliglig Drivers ng Maynila, told GMA News in an interview aired over “24 Oras". (The children of kuliglig drivers are now nearly unable to go to school because their daily allowance now goes into keeping hunger at bay.)
“Pag hindi kami pinakinggan, natural lang na gumawa kami ng paraan, labag man ito sa batas o hindi. Gagawin namin ito upang buhayin ang aming pamilya," he added (If our plaints are not heard, it’s only natural that we find ways, whether lawful or not, to keep our families alive.) Earlier Thursday, police secured Mendiola Bridge near Malacañang in anticipation of the protest action. Last Dec. 1, violence broke out during the kuliglig drivers' protest against the city government's orders barring them from the city's main streets. Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, in issuing the orders, had cited complaints that the kuligligs were noisy and that they violate traffic rules. In their Dec. 1 protest, at least 12 people were hurt and 16 arrested when violence marred the drivers' protest as they barricaded Burgos Street. Most of the arrested drivers had since posted bail, while not a few kuliglig drivers returned to the streets in defiance of the city government's order. Bishops: ‘Find creative solutions’ As this developed, kuliglig drivers received a boost from bishops who urged the city government to find a creative solution for their present livelihood problem. The Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF) said the drivers who stand to lose their source of income deserve assistance from the city government. “These drivers are also residents of the city to whom the government has responsibility and concern, especially because they belong to the marginalized and less privileged members of society," the EBF said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines news site. On the other hand, the EBF scored the police for their "brutal" dispersal of the kuliglig drivers' barricade of Burgos Street last Dec. 1. “While we, the Bishops, understand the motive the City Government to regulate the operation of kuligligs like all other vehicles plying the city, we don’t understand the necessity of inflicting harm on the drivers and destroying their vehicles," it said. Signing the statement were EBF executive secretary and Protestant Bishop Elmer Bocolon; co-chairperson Catholic Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez Jr.; and Methodist Bishop Solito Toquero. The EBF also said there was no sense in obliging the drivers to dismantle their vehicles’ engines, adding that some drivers are disabled and cannot pedal their machines. “These kuligligs are proving helpful to the riding public, for otherwise they will not be patronized," the bishops added.—With Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMANews.TV