Jeepney, Part II

It is truly difficult to bid farewell to something that has been a part of Filipino life for as long as like forever. And it is not just the length of the togetherness. It is the uniqueness of that shared journey. The jeepney is home only in the Philippines. Nowhere else. But the jeepney has to go. The time has come when it has outlived any meaningful usefulness.

That jeepney drivers are up in arms is understandable. But it is wrong to think of government as the villain for showing them the door, and setting an end of December deadline with which to make the exit. The government merely represents the people. It is the people who want and need this change. They deserve an end to their suffering from an outdated and outmoded system.

Change is inevitable. Even the drivers themselves will have to admit there are changes in their sector that are hard to ignore. Never in their lives, for example, did they dream the day would come when even the motorcycle would one day become a competitor, much less a serious and viable one. But there is Angkas, giving drivers a run for their money.

So the jeepney has to go. It eventually has to. Better cut cleanly now than later. With things getting more expensive by the day, the price of delayed change can truly be painful, messy. Besides, the environment for change right now is rather conducive and relatively easy. There is much sentimentality and goodwill in the air. Why wait to get the boot.

I have very fond memories of the jeepney. I grew up in the Sixties, when everyone rode the jeepney. Buses were for long distance and the few taxis were for going to the airport or to the maternity. There were even buses configured like jeepneys, called wagons, for medium distances. They had cords in the ceiling tied to a bell behind the driver. Getting off? Give the cord a tug!

My awareness of girls was helped immensely by the jeepney. It was a wonderful time for any young boy's awakening. Our generation had just invented the mini skirt. When you come on board and see a girl in a mini, you never sit beside her. You sit across her. Another boy comes and he does the same. It ends with all boys on one side, girls on the other. The girls feign "kipi-kipi" but everybody was really happy.

I used to not mind taking "palihug" from others to pass on the "plete”. I found it boy-scoutish to do so. But I now hate it ever since I was alone with this woman across from me, both of us equidistant from the driver. She not only "palihugged" me with her "plete" but also asked me to wait for the "sukli”. I now sit, whenever possible, by the entrance.

In the Seventies, car stereos became the hottest thing on jeepneys. The problem was, drivers didn't know a thing about music and volume and equalizers. So you either had the Beatles or Eddie Peregrina and everything in-between, shrieking in full twitter or booming in full bass. Either way, you cannot breathe with the music at full volume. Good the law finally rid jeepneys of all "sounds”.

Then in the Eighties, with life getting more difficult, the hoods started moving in on the jeepneys, robbing passengers at gun or knife point, or picking pockets or snatching jewelry. There was even a "shoplifting inside a jeepney" reported by one journalist --someone making off with a passenger's shopping bags. Clearly, the time of the jeepney as a means of transport and social phenomenon has lapsed.