CEBU, Philippines - Imagine noiseless bicycle traffic that stretches for seven kilometers on a Sunday morning with close to 10.000 participants young and old pedaling away in support of clean air. This and more was the car-less scene last Sunday, April 18, 2010, as the annual Tour of the Fireflies opened Earth Day Network festivities and claimed the streets of seven cities in the Metro.
For the past 12 years, the Firefly Brigade has led this annual bike tour that became known as the Filipino mardi gras on wheels. Bike enthusiasts from all walks of life joined this parade where Filipino creativity had free rein as cyclists donned their firefly wings and decorated their bicycles. Dutch Ambassador Robert G. Brinks gamely joined the tour and thanked Firefly Brigade for inviting the Netherlands Embassy to be part of this initiative for the first time. Through its Fiets on Earth Bike the Planet project, the embassy promoted Firefly Brigade’s clean air advocacies and bannered it under the Viva Europa activities – this year’s European Cultural Summer Festival from April to June 2010.
Along with Anita van de Haar-Conijn, the embassy’s Deputy Head of Mission, Ambassador Brinks led the inaugural ride of 15 Dutch Batavus bikes specially flown from the Netherlands for this event. The Dutch Firefly Contingent was an assembly of Ms. Earth delegates and local celebrities like Albert Martinez, Carlos Celdran, Jon-jon Rufino, Manu Sandejas, Paolo Abrera, Raimund Marasigan, Reema Chanco, and Tessa Prieto-Valdes.
Immediately after the tour, a total of 15 Dutch bikes were turned over to three organizations that submitted the best and innovative proposals in utilizing the bikes in an environmentally sustainable manner. These bikes will soon be seen in UP Diliman as the group Padyak includes it in their fleet of bikes made available to faculty and students inside the campus. MyShelter Foundation led by Illac Diaz will transform the bikes as emergency ambulance carriers in Batangas City. Meanwhile, in the Visayas, volunteers and members of the Boracay Young Professionals Group will ride and showcase the bikes in their weekly environmental campaigns around schools and barangays in Boracay.
Fiets, the Dutch word for bikes, is certainly an integral part of the Dutch way of life in the Netherlands according to Tatine Faylona, senior political and cultural affairs officer of the embassy. In fact, the country is known for having more bikes than people. What better way to share the Dutch culture than through a bike tour specially meant for a cause that affects every Filipino. As Ambassador Brinks intoned, Go Green! Go Dutch! Go Bike!
For more information on the Fiets on Earth Bike the Planet project, send an email to fietsonearth@gmail.com