Charles Teves
- Vendors were mugging people in broad daylight in Batangas Pier
- Netizen exposed Panutsa vendors’ modus in Batangas Pier in broad daylight
- Some sweet peanut vendors in the port force people to buy their products
The Batangas International Port, also known as the Batangas Pier, is a seaport in Barangay Santa Clara, Batangas City primarily serving the Calabarzon region of the Philippines. The area of coverage is astounding, as the seaport nearly covers 150 hectares.
Thousands of people come and go in this port, that consists of tourists and locals. It is common to see vendors around places that are filled with people, and this is where the problem comes in.
According to Marie Dinglasan, peanut vendors in the port force people to buy their peanuts. Their strategy is to take a passenger’s belongings and force them to buy their peanuts or else they won’t return their stuff, or even worse, they would beat the passenger up.
“Para sa mga taga Batangas Pier na vendor ng panutsa na to, mga putang ina nyo …Huwag nyong inaagaw ang bagahe ng mga pasahero at pagkatpos bebentahan nyo ng tinda nyo at sasabihin nyo na nagpatulong sa inyo”, Marie said in her Facebook post.
She said that it happened to her child too. Her child’s belongings were taken by some vendors. The peanut vendors then threatened to beat up the child if their peanuts weren’t bought.
The child claimed to not have enough money but the vendors insisted, and even increased the price of the peanuts significantly. The peanuts were eventually bought as shown by the picture posted by Marie.
“Biktima nyo ang anak ko, inagaw nyo ang bagahe nya, sinabihan na kayu na ayaw nya, dinarag nyo pa, sakto na lang ang pera ng bata, siningilan nyo ng malaki at kapag di nagbigay, bubugbugin nyo.“
The vendors are using their peanuts as an instrument to rob people. It is basically mugging.
“Iisa kau ng kulay ng mga HOLDAPER gamit nyo lang ay panindang mani! Mga SALOT KAYO ng LIPUNAN DAPAT IPAGBAWAL YANG PAGLALAKO NG MANI, DAPAT ILAGAY SA TAMANG LUGAR NG PAMILIHAN NG PASALUBONG!“, she added.
She urges people to document incidents like this so that it would not go any further. She also said that the people will be the ones to teach these muggers a lesson.
“Mga pasahero picturan nyo agad o e video nyo ang mga ginagawang mali sa inyo ng mga abusero jan, Sa atin din po makakakuha ng disiplina ang mga yan, thank u po!”
Meanwhile, there is an ongoing privatization in the port, and as for the vendors, they are coming together as one to fight for the occupancy of a vacant lot.
