Grounded trike drivers get help from Ateneo teen scholar

MANILA, Philippines — Seventeen-year-old Noelle Placer was set to graduate from senior high today.

It would have been a joyous occasion for Placer who, as a full scholar, excelled and often outperformed her classmates in the accounting and business management (ABM) strand at the Ateneo de Manila University High School. She expected to graduate with flying colors, she shyly confided, but didn’t want to jinx it.

But then came the coronavirus pandemic that had crept its way out of China and enveloped the global community. Life as we knew it ground to a halt, and bright-eyed students like Placer had to forgo life’s milestones, like a graduation ceremony, as Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon hunkered down for a monthlong home quarantine.

“I think I’m speaking for the entire batch when I say we were all saddened. So many important events were canceled, like our graduation ball, our retreat, the graduation itself,” Placer said wistfully. “But we’re aware that because of our privilege, these are the only problems we’ve had to deal with while many others are losing their jobs.”

Donation drive

So she took to Facebook and Twitter to kickstart a donation drive for displaced public utility vehicles (PUV) and tricycle drivers, starting in nearby village, Barangay Manggahan in Pasig City.

The city government led by Mayor Vico Sotto was among the first to allot and release subsidies for PUV, tricycle and UV express drivers who had lost their sources of livelihood because of the suspension of public transportation across Luzon.

No big-name donors

But when Placer put up her call for donations on March 21, “there was no announcement of any such aid yet, so I really wanted to help in my own way.”

Noelle’s Twitter account—@noellegnt—only had a little over 600 followers, and she only asked for a donation of P50 per sponsor. But in seven days, the senior high student was able to raise nearly P20,000 from people from all walks of life. No civic groups, no lump-sum donations from big-time businessmen. The donations, in cash and in kind, just kept rolling in, she noted.

So far, Placer and her family have managed to hand out around 146 relief packs for tricycle drivers in Manggahan and in the nearby town of Taytay in Rizal province. Each pack contained rice, canned goods and noodles.

First batch

The first batch went to the tricycle operators and drivers’ association (Toda) of Barangay Manggahan, thanks to a family contact in the village council. Another batch of 75 relief packs went to another Toda in Taytay, Rizal, earlier this week. Placer said they were hoping to send relief goods to a PUV group in Bulacan province as well.

Placer’s initiative came “at just the right time,” according to Manggahan’s Toda president Jojo Pescon.

Two weeks into the transport stoppage, most of the association’s 500 members were already struggling to get by. Mayor Sotto’s promise of P3,000 in aid was expected to come this week but their families were already worrying about their next meal, Pescon said.

He admitted that some of their members, desperate to earn a day’s pay, still picked up passengers on the early days of the lockdown—until the police impounded their tricycles and imposed hefty fines. Others turned their tricycles into “habal-habal” (motorbike taxis for hire) but were stopped at the checkpoints just the same because having backriders is also prohibited under the enhanced community quarantine guidelines.

Huge deal

“At this point they have run out of ideas,” he said. “So what Ms Noelle did … was a huge deal for us because it helped tide over our members who are most in need.”

“This makes us feel important. We know some people tend to look down on us because of our menial jobs, but this is honorable work. Our children are able to finish school because of this,” Pescon said. “I really hope we are not forgotten in this crisis.”

Placer herself is of humble beginnings. Her mother, a teacher who takes freelance tutoring jobs, served as the family breadwinner while her father minded the household.

Full scholarship

She made it to Ateneo de Manila thanks to a full scholarship, and further proved why she rightfully deserved it by reaping numerous academic awards.

Earlier this month, as the quarantine came into force and started upending lives, she saw its economic impact on Manggahan’s tricycle drivers and “it broke my heart.”

“It’s why I empathize with them and relate to what they’re experiencing,” she said. “God impressed upon my heart that if He wants to use someone to help others, it doesn’t have to be someone powerful or famous. All it takes is someone with a generous heart.”