RATHER than doing his job, a barangay worker and his friends kept busy charging P20 to tourists and residents willing to pose with their reptiles along Leon Kilat Street, Cebu City yesterday.
Rosalina Durano, chief tanod of Barangay Kalubihan, said the four men had to be called out by personnel of the Cebu City Prevention Restoration Order Beautification and Enhancement (Probe) after a crowd gathered around them, blocking a portion of the Sinulog parade route.
She identified one of them as Alexandro Cabaron, a barangay peace and safety officer.
Cabaron brought an albino Burmese python at Leon Kilat Street covered in a shirt that bore the Barangay Kalubihan logo.
Cabaron invited passersby to pose with the python for P20 per photo.
“Gipa-roving man to nako para makatabang og han-ay sa mga nagdasok nga tawo. Bawal man ang ingon ana (I asked him to monitor the area and help in crowd control. What they’re doing is not allowed),” Durano said.
A few minutes later, Cabaron was joined by his friends who brought two champagne snakes and an iguana.
All of them charged P20 to visitors willing to pose for a photo holding the creatures.
One of the Probe members, Dende Montes, said it was the second time they caught Cabaron and his friends making money from their pets.
“Para bawi ni sa kaon kay mahal kaayo ni og pagkaon (To recover what I spent because its food is expensive),” Cabaron said when asked why he made money from letting visitors pose with his pet python. Cabaron said he feeds the python one chicken twice a month.
He said the 17-pound snake is still a year and two months old.
The other men who refused to be named said they got their reptiles from a Cebu City pet shop and these were registered.