PHILIPPINES: Traditional horse carriages edged out by motorised vehicles in Manila

Record ID: 537600

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: Traditional horse carriages edged out by motorised vehicles in Manila
  • Date: 25th September 2008
  • Summary: ANTIQUES MUSEUM CURATOR TERESITA OBUSAN ARRANGING ANTIQUE CHAIR (SOUNDBITE) (English) TERESITA OBUSAN, ANTIQUES MUSEUM CURATOR, SAYING: "Some would regard it as a relic, cultural relic, but actually it's not. I mean, there's so much it can, it belongs now to the area of the intangible and we call it 'culture.' You know, culture is not always the material, there is the intangible related to that. In fact, every material thing has an intangible component."
  • Embargoed: 10th October 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Philippines
  • Country: Philippines
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAC77JJIQ12YSYOJ8S4UVFEEK2L
  • Story Text: An icon of the Philippines' colonial past, the traditional horse-drawn carriage fights for survival against gas-guzzling vehicles in Manila.
    Historians have referred to the horse-drawn carriage, kalesa in Filipino, as the 18th-century Rolls Royce.
    In the 1700-1800's, when Manila was under Spanish rule, ornate two-seater carriages were a symbol of affluence as only noblemen and high-ranked officials could afford to ride them.
    The kalesa trodded into the 20th century, outlasting the colonisers and becoming the preferred mode of transport among students and office workers.
    But the old-fashioned carriage is being swept aside by a growing number of cars, jeepneys, buses and ubiquitous motorised tricycles in the city of 14 million, and now the kalesa caters mostly to tourists in historical sites.
    Roberto dela Cruz has operated a kalesa in downtown Manila for 37 years.

    "Our earnings were overflowing, back in those times when there were not many cars on the road, only horse carriages. The Chinese living here had no other means to get around but the horse carriage," dela Cruz said.
    In his estimate, there were at least 2,500 kalesas plying the streets of Manila 30 years ago. Now, there are less than 300 carriages left, fighting for passengers with around 50,000 jeepneys in greater Manila.
    With the kalesa facing near extinction, long-time coachmen or kutsero in Filipino, are finding it difficult to shift to another form of livelihood.
    Ricardo Legaspi, a coachman for 27 years and owner of a stable, has four children who all know how to take care of horses but don't want to have anything to do with the carriages. He says he doesn't blame them one bit, considering the livelihood may no longer be viable.

    "We just rely on luck to see us through. If you get good luck, thank God you earned something extra. If you get bad luck, most of the time you only have enough to feed your horse, and barely enough to feed yourself.
    Things started going bad for the kalesa ever since tricycles entered the scene, Legaspi said.
    A coachman already considers himself blessed if he earns 300 pesos (6.45 U.S. dollars) at the end of a day's work. Often they take home a net of 80 pesos (1.71 U.S. dollars) a day.
    With the rising cost of horse feed and overall inflation eating up their earnings, switching over to motorised tricycles is becoming an attractive prospect for more and more coachmen.
    Motorised tricycles, which can stream through tight spots in heavy traffic, are the biggest threat to the kalesa. They also charge as low as half a dollar per ride while kalesas normally charge triple.
    Though the kalesa is all but obsolete as a mode of everyday transport, it survives as a historical curio for tourists in Intramuros, a walled enclave in Manila which was the political and economic hub in colonial times.
    Teresita Obusan, curator at an antiques museum in Manila, believes the kalesa is here to stay.

    "Some would regard it as a relic, cultural relic, but actually it's not. I mean, there's so much it can, it belongs now to the area of the intangible and we call it 'culture'. You know, culture is not always the material, there is the intangible related to that. In fact, every material thing has an intangible component," Obusan said.
    Tour guide Carlos Celdran, who has made the kalesa ride an integral part of his Hispanic Manila tour, says the beauty and usability of the horse carriage remain, but modern times call for modern means.

    "Finding the next generation is not hard. Yes, it's dwindling, but also it's not the fault of anybody else except for just progress edging it out," said Celdran.
    Coachmen heavily rely on foreign tourists, who pay 250 pesos (5.40 U.S.
    dollars) for a kalesa ride around old Manila.
    Though the horse-drawn carriage has essentially become props to recreate the colonial past, many will agree that the clattering of hooves on cobblestone streets is still so much a part of Manila's charm.
    ENDS.
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