Unbowed by poverty, tricycle driver promises to keep 5 kids in school

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu – It was still dawn but 46-year-old Eric Alilin was already busy preparing breakfast for his five children before he sends them off to school.

Alilin lacked sleep and his muscles still ached from pedaling his tricycle the day before, but he proceeded with his early morning ritual without any complaints. He has no choice. He has been father and mother to his children for the past eight years.

“It is very difficult being both a father and a mother, especially since my children were left behind by their mother while they were still young,” Alilin told Manila Bulletin.

His said his wife abandoned him and Junbert, 16; Cherry Mae,15; Charice, 13; and 10-year old twins, Carl and Karylle Kate because she couldn’t bear a life of hardship and poverty.

Alilin remembered a time when he was so depressed he contemplated committing suicide.

“There was a time when I considered taking my own life, to escape hardships and life’s challenges. But every time I think of committing suicide, I think of my children. What would happen to them when I am gone? They will suffer more,” Alilin said, wiping the tears from his cheeks.

When he was young, Alilin wanted to become a mechanical engineer but did not make it to college because he cannot afford it. He ended up working in a fastfood store as dishwater, and then become a bartender.

When he was retrenched, Alilin used his separation pay to buy a tricycle to earn a living for his growing family. The tricycle, he said, was not registered because he cannot afford to the fees.

After his children leave for school, Alilin takes care of his paralyzed 75year-old mother, Deisypina Bataluna. In the afternoon, he ferries passengers on his tricycle, for which he earns an average of P300 a day.

The money is goes to the family’s daily food needs, his kids’ schooling, and his mother’s maintenance medicines.

Alilin’s wife suddenly left eight years ago but “my children have never felt angry towards their mother because I have been guiding them.”

“I have no regrets even if I live a life in poverty because I have my children. I consider them my treasure, my only treasure. They are the reason why I wake up at dawn and why I work hard every day,” he said.

Alilin said he always reminds his children to value education so they can live a comfortable life in the future. He said he will make sure that his children will finish even high school.

“I just have a very simple dream for them and that is for them to graduate even high school and get a noble job because I know, I can’t afford to send them to college,” he said.

The father’s hard work and immeasurable love for his children do not go unnoticed. For his eldest child, Junbert, Alilin is the best father in the world. Junbert said he has never felt the absence of his mother because of his father’s unconditional love.

“Pa, thank you for all your hard work for us so we can live and study despite our financial problems. I thank you for taking care of us even with mama’s absence,” Junbert told Alilin.

Junbert, however, still hopes the time will come their mother will return and their family will be complete once more.

There will be no feast or outing for the Alilin family on Father’s Day. Instead, the father said he will just pray and thank the Lord for good health and for the welfare of his children.