THE JAPANESE WILL GO CRAZY!

The ingenuity of the Filipino has never ceased to amaze me.

The Japanese built a motorized bicycle called “motorcycle” designed to carry two people, three at the most.

What did the Filipino do with the motorcycle?

In many parts of Mindanao, they converted it and placed two horizontal seats and called it the “Skylab” which could carry as many as 12 people!

The Japanese inventors definitely went crazy! In fact, some Japanese friends I talked to said they could not stop laughing seeing the weird looking two-wheeled vehicles.

But they also admit they are impressed at the talent of the Filipinos to improvise.

Last Friday, as I was moving around the poblacion of Midsayap, my attention was caught by a pudgy man puffing his cigarette while dismantling old motorcycle chains.

Anacleto “Jun” Quiriquiol, 39, earns about P300 a day dismantling old and worn out chains of motorcycles and turning the pins to reposition it and make them workable again.

“Murag brand new (It’s like brand new)!” said one of the tricycle drivers who buys Jun Quiriquiol’s recycled chains which is being sold with a guarantee period longer than the brand new chains.

“I learned this from my father,” said Jun Quiriquiol.

The technique is very simple. The motorcycle chains have pins which get worn out as they get into contact with the teeth of the sprockets.

What he does is individually dismantle the chains piece by piece and turn the pins so that the undamaged portion will get into contact with the sprocket, hiding the worn out side of the pins.

“It’s very hard but this is better than stealing,” he told me. He sells each recycled chain for P100 and he could make three chains every day.

A brand new chain sells for almost P400.

The tricycle drivers who have bought Jun Quiriquiol’s recycled chains swear they are more durable than the ones made in China.

For Jun Quiriquiol, the P300 that he earns everyday is enough to provide his family the basic needs.

Indeed, necessity is the father of ingenuity.

I told Jun Quiriquiol that if God grants our wish on May 13, I will help him put up a stall so he does not have to stop working every time it rains.