Many people spend money during the Sinulog celebrations. But for some street people, it’s a perfect day of the year to earn money.
For nine-year-old Joshua Cupta, the crowd enjoying the Sinulog Grand Parade means more empty plastic bottles to collect and sell to junk shops.
Cebu Daily News saw Cupta, a third grade student from Barrio Luz Elementary School, carrying two plastic sacks filled with empty plastic bottles near the Asilo de la Milagrosa de Cebu church.
Clad in a sleeveless red shirt and green short pants, Cupta did not mind the scorching heat as he headed home to barangay Cabantan, Cebu City, a one and a half kilometer away from where he collected the plastic bottles in Gorordo Avenue.
Cupta told Cebu Daily News that he’s been collecting plastic bottles every Sinulog for two years already.
Cupta said his parents are unemployed and his father also collects plastic bottles and sells it in a junk shop as his means of livelihood.
Cupta said he is the fourth child in a brood of eight.
By collecting plastic bottles on the streets, Cupta hits two birds with one stone: he can earn money from the plastic bottles he collects and at the same time clean the streets during the Sinulog revelry.
Native hats, fans
In another part of the Sinulog Grand Parade route along Osmena Boulevard, three friends see the Sinulog crowd as the perfect market for native hats and fans.
Manuel Olasiman, 23, Mark Jardio, 16, and Patrick Joshua Gerzon, 12, agreed to sell colorful fans and hats made of palm leaves along the parade route.
Olasiman said they sell the fans for as low as P20 and the hats as low as P25.
Olasiman, who had been selling these products during the Sinulog for three years, said he just wanted to earn money instead of wasting time and not doing anything.
“Lingaw gihapon bisan init. Mawagtang man sad imong kakapoy (I am still enjoying [selling palm-leaf hats and fans] even though it’s a hot day. Our tiredness will just go away)” Olasiman told Cebu Daily News.
The friends claim that on a busy day they earn as much P1,000 and on lean days as much as P600.
Olasiman, who is the third child of a brood of six, said his father passed away and his mother sold tuba (fermented coconut wine) at the Taboan Market. He, however, now lives with his grandmother.
Jardio is a freshman college student from University of Cebu-Mambaling campus. And since there’s no classes, he decided to join his friends in their endeavor.
Jardio’s family owns the store at the Taboan Market, where the friends get their supply of native fans and hats to sell.
Gerrzon, for his part, said he joined his friends in their business endeavor because he wanted to have more allowance in school.
Gerzon, who is from Labangon Cebu City, is an only child. His parents are charcoal vendors in the Taboan Market.
first timers
Meanwhile, a couple from Manila came to Cebu for the first time for the Sinulog Festival.
Tin Loya and her boyfriend, Mon Bermudez were spotted in a restaurant along Osmeña Boulevard during the Sinulog Grand Parade yesterday afternoon.
Loya, a Bayantel employee, said she and Bermudez arrived in Cebu last Thursday for a business review and they stayed on for the Sinulog. Rhea Ruth V. Rosell, Correspondent