Ride to Malacañang BIG BIKE RIDERS GATHER IN TAGAYTAY CITY APRIL 11

By Manny Piñol

It will be a noisy day tomorrow in Tagaytay City as the country’s big motorcycle enthusiasts, referred to usually as Big Bikers, will gather to listen to one of their own, Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte, speak about governance and his advocacy for a shift from the current Unitary Presidential to Federal Parliamentary system of government.

Riders from Visayas and Mindanao are not expected to come with their Big Bikes but those coming from Luzon and Metro Manila will fill the streets of Tagaytay City with BMWs, Ducati’s, Harleys, Yamahas, Hondas and other expensive bikes on their way to the convention venue.

The gathering of the Big Bikers actually is a national convention of motorcycle enthusiasts and they decided to invite Mayor Duterte, himself a Big Bike rider to be the guest of honor.

While Duterte seldom rides the big bike nowadays following a spill which injured his spine, he occasionally jumps into his Yamaha Virago defying doctors’ orders to enjoy his passion for riding.

Several years ago, Duterte joined a group of big bike enthusiasts who toured the country for several weeks, an experience which opened the eyes of the Davao City Mayor to the realities confronting the country and the Filipinos.

“I saw bustling communities, I saw sleepy towns, I saw neglect, I saw poverty and I saw what so many other places needed to catch up with the rest of the country,” he once said.

Duterte said the scenes he saw all over the country in his travels on board the Big Bike made him realise that there is a need for government to reach out to the countryside to provide jobs and income opportunities for the people.

“Many of our overseas workers do not have to leave their families behind and suffer the pain of loneliness abroad if only government could reserve the set up and focus more on rural development to create more jobs and income opportunities for our people,” Duterte said.

The many other Big Bike Riders obviously have seen what Duterte saw and understood what needed to be done.

In Tagaytay City tomorrow, they are expected to convince one of their own to ride his way to Malacañang.

(Photos of big bikers and Rody Duterte on his big bike downloaded from Google.com)