Riders’ Safety Advocates of the Philippines (RSAP) founder Bonifacio Bosita, known to many as the defender of all riders and motorists, is looking more and more like a social media star.
This, after Bosita finally received from YouTube his "Silver Creator Award" in the form of a spiffy-looking silver play button plaque.
"Sa lahat po ng mga YouTube Subscribers ko, at sa lahat ng mga nakikiisa at sumusuporta sa ating adbokasiya- MARAMING SALAMAT PO! (To all my YouTube subscribers and to all those who echo and support my advocacy-- thank you very much!)" he wrote in a post on the RSAP Facebook page last Monday, April 5.
The Silver Creator Award is reserved for YouTube channels that have reached or surpassed 100,000 subscribers. Bosita's "Colonel Bosita, RSAP" channel already has over 348,000 subscribers.
The retired Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) colonel's channel has logged in over 12.4 million views from his videos since signing up on the platform on December 26, 2018.
The RSAP Facebook page, which Bosita uses to make important announcements, has over 809,000 members and is growing at a steady pace.
Bosita's most recently claim to fame is his involvement in the "tsinelas" issue, or more specifically, then back-rider slippers controversy that sort of "pitted" him against Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) traffic czar Edison Bong Nebrija.
The online tit-for-tat between the two began early last month after an MMDA traffic enforcer ticketed a motorcycle-riding couple for a "dress code violation". Specifically, the enforcer cited the female back-rider for wearing slippers instead of shoes.
Bosita--contacted for help by the couple--responded to the scene in EDSA and lectured the enforcer of his alleged erroneous apprehension. On top of this, he told him to pay the female supermarket employee P500 as compensation for her lost wage that day. And pay the woman the enforcer did.
The incident, caught on video, earned Nebrija's goat since he felt that Bosita meddled too much to the point of ruining what would have been a simple adjudication between the complainants (the couple) and the enforcer at MMDA.
Bosita and Nebrija's social media followers have been trolling each other ever since.