MMDA probes sidewalk clearing group caught mauling Pasay vendor

Top officials of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) have summoned the members of the sidewalk clearing group who were caught in a now viral video mauling a coconut vendor in Pasay City on Friday.

Francis Martinez, head of the MMDA’s metro parkway clearing group, said the deployment of the questioned team has been put on hold as an investigation into the incident is underway.

On Friday, netizen Mhean Capaycapay posted on her Facebook page a video of an unnamed man she called “kuya” and whom she said was mauled by MMDA personnel.

While she said she understood that he should not be selling his goods along Edsa, “why should [the MMDA] resort to mauling him.”

“He was willing to relocate. He appealed to you. That is his only means of livelihood. He has a wife and a child that is why he doesn’t want to let go of his cart. Please do not be abusive, he doesn’t deserve such kind of treatment. He’s only trying to earn a decent living,” Capaycapay said in Filipino in her post that has since been shared by around 230,000 Facebook users.

Based on their initial investigation, Martinez said that his men told him that the coconut vendor supposedly threw ice on them, which led to the confrontation.

He noted that the vendor had repeatedly been asked in the past to move out as he was obstructing pedestrian traffic.

Nonetheless, Martinez pointed out that they would not tolerate such actions, as he maintained that they always remind their personnel to exercise maximum tolerance whenever they conduct clearing operations.