Estrada vows to help street vendors vs extortionists

Mayor Joseph Estrada File Photo

MANILA, Philippines – Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada on Monday vowed to reshuffle policemen who have allegedly been extorting money from street vendors and motorists caught for traffic obstruction.

Estrada lamented that extorting money from street vendors and erring motorists has become big business for some corrupt policemen and barangay (village) chiefs.

“Malaking raket yan. Totoo po yan. Involved na naman ang mga pulis, barangay chairmen dyan. Yan pong parking tsaka mga vendors yan ang pinagkakakitaan ng nakararami sa kanila (This is a big racket involving some policemen and barangay chairmen. Most of them earn money from vendors and from parking),” Estrada said in a radio interview.

Estrada said the local government was mulling over the privatization of parking spaces in the city to address the problem.

He said they would also reshuffle the police in Manila amid reports that even Vice Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso has been offered P150,000 bribe money to keep an illegal bus terminal in Lawton open.

“Ipapalinis po natin yan at ire-reshuffle natin ang mga pulis. Lalo na po ‘yong mga pulis na nag-aagawan sa mga station na pagkakakitaan (We’ll eradicate this mess and reshuffle the police, especially those scrambling for ‘juicy’ stations),’’ said Estrada.

But he did not mention any penalty or sanction to erring barangay chairmen.

The mayor also promised to eventually address the problem on vendors or at least “regulate” them to ease the traffic mess in the city and one solution was to establish night markets for them.

The plan, however, will take two to three months, said Estrada.

“Pero ma-assure ko sa inyo na wala na ni-isa sa kanila ang kinokotongan ngayon kahit ng barangay chairman o kahit mga pulis (I will assure the vendors that no policeman or barangay official will ever extort money from them),” he added.