DRIVING THOUGHTS
It has been a week of talk about the old and the modern jeepney and all the issues that come with the transition.
We’ve heard the jeepney drivers, operators, and transport groups protest the planned phaseout of the jeepney with the PUV Modernization Program (PUVMP) which was rolled out in 2017.
I’ve read and listened to various opinions on what should be done, or needs to be done by government to see the program to a successful implementation — which is, “to provide safer, more-efficient and more strictly-regulated means of transport for the riding public.”
Everybody seems to have an opinion on the phaseout of the jeepney because the jeepney has been part of our lives.
I cannot help but have a ready comment on the jeepney; one day I am charmed by it, the next, I am disgusted, and by next week, I am thankful that it still goes through an area the buses have forgotten.
My opinion on the jeepney depends on my situation on the road. If I am rushing to work, I dislike the jeepney for clogging intersections and delaying my trip. If I am on my way home, I forgive the jeepney’s sudden swerving, I do not blow my horn when its occupying half of my lane, and I patiently allow the driver to weave in and out of my view.
As a young student, the jeepney was my vehicle of independence. When I was finally allowed to take the jeepney on my own, I felt proud that my parents trusted my skills to find my way home. I studied its routes and learned that drivers could be requested to pass a street not in its route especially if one had many bags to carry. The independence overwhelmed me, I went to rural towns where I soon found out that I could get a tricycle to go further into the mountains.
It was also on a jeepney were I learned patience (which I now am short of, perhaps because I’m older). Sharing the ride with the public demands that you have patience – to wait for passengers to appear, to wait for them to alight, to wait for the driver to assess the possibility of more passengers when there are none in sight. It was then that I learned to use the time to observe people and imagine the stories of their lives. I think that was when journalism started in my mind.
I learned about inequality in the jeepney. I observed mothers carry a baby and a toddler on her lap, so she would only pay the fare of one seated person. I saw anxiety cross the faces of passengers when told that the cash given is not enough for the ride to a destination. I felt the quiet acceptance of an old person creeping up to take a seat with much difficulty in movement. So many times I’ve seen the faces of the poor who should be getting to their destinations in better transport conditions but a jeepney ride –and the patience of a jeepney driver – is all they can afford. My social activism started there.
I saw the bayanihan culture many times in the jeepney. All strangers, the passengers do not hesitate to pass on the fare from the farthest point of the cabin to the driver in front. There is no hesitance to assist a passenger to load –or unload a large bag. And there is always one who will answer a passenger’s query on where to alight to go to a certain destination.
Today, the jeepney is my competitor in the daily battle for more road space. When I’m following it through crawling traffic, I still observe the passengers inside, all of them with the patience of Job. Sometimes the view is amusing, a passenger trying to alight but being held back by another because there’s a policeman ahead. A cop’s presence always discourages people from breaking traffic regulations, such as unloading in the middle of the street.
And so, the saga of the jeepney continues. The deadline for the phaseout of the old jeepney and the consolidation of franchises has been moved again to the end of 2023. The cost of the modern jeepney – from ₱1.6 million to ₱2.4 million or more – requires the forming of a cooperative, which is so different from the single proprietorship manner of running a jeepney.
Old or modern, I hope the Pinoy culture that drives the jeepney will stay. Patience, kindness, helpfulness.