In a public service program in the Philippines, an old couple was interviewed and shared how their pedicab was stolen. Raffy Tulfo is the host of the program and known for his strong personality and his drive to help those victims to claim their rights.
Antonio Palao and his wife, Lourdes Palao emotionally narrated the incident. On his old age, Antonio still drives a pedicab as their source of living. According to him, Php 200.00 is the maximum amount of money he brings home from a 9 AM to 12 PM and 2 PM to 5 PM trip around Avenida.
One day, Antonio’s pedicab was stolen and it is his passenger who runs it away from him. The passenger promised Antonio to give Php 150.00 as fare.
Antonio just needs to drive him to his “kalakal” and picks it up along their way which the old man agreed. Upon reaching their destination, the passenger asked Antonio to get off his pedicab and help him pick-up his kalakal.
Right away, Antonio did his passenger’s request. He followed the passenger, but after a few minutes of walking, he lost the passenger on his sight! He decided to come back to his pedicab, but his pedicab was already gone too.
Antonio said that he has no any single idea about the passenger’s identity but he still remembers his face. Tulfo also asked about the couple’s daily life. Antonio shared that it is their only source of income and it keeps him strong despite his age.
He added that Lourdes is his second wife and they have been living for almost 20 years now, but they only got married last 2016 through a “Kasalang Bayan.”
Lourdes has 5 children from her first husband while Antonio has two, but none of them lives with the couple. They only live at a small space at the far end of Caloocan City and has no electricity.
Tulfo told the couple that they would first undergo an investigation for the crime, but it’ll take so long. Tulfo promised Antonio and his wife to give them a new pedicab if they failed to find it. He also offered the couple to provide a capital to open a small sari-sari store or an eatery in their place, so Antonio doesn’t need to drive the pedicab daily, but Antonio refuses the offer because of the reason that they live near a riverbank and there’s no space for the business.
At the end of the interview, Tulfo assured that he would give Antonio a new pedicab, a new phone and some money to spend while waiting for the pedicab to be delivered to them.
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