Jeepneys, Passengers, and the Economy

After being cut off by a jeepney for the nth time, I pondered (in between curses) the cause of such lack of discipline in our country. Jeepney drivers, along with other professional drivers of public utility vehicles, don’t’ follow rules because they just don’t. Their excuse is always that they’re just trying to earn a living. But aren’t we all? As much as I spend my time practicing the law of attraction and visualizing my personal genie granting my every wish, I still have to do some physical work to earn money. So why do they have more leeway for not following traffic laws? Why do red lights not apply to motorcycles? Why is the Clean Air Act not implemented on buses? Why are one-way streets not relevant to taxis? Why?!!

Most critics of the government will blame the lowly traffic enforcers. They don’t implement the law and they take bribes. Maybe they are partly to blame because a friend of mine was able to bribe her way out of a ticket by offering an umbrella and a deck of cards. I personally gave payola in the form of a chocolate bar with a small piece bitten off. The guy was that desperate and so was I. But what about the passengers? When commuters flag down a cab or hail an FX in the middle of traffic or on the island in the middle of EDSA, aren’t they responsible for the congestion they cause? It’s like the age old question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Are undisciplined commuters causing jeepneys to be reckless or are the jeepneys heedless to begin with and therefore the passengers just follow?

So what does this have to do with our economy? Hold on, I have a metaphor approaching. The jeepney is the Philippine economy. It stops inappropriately, it swerves, it’s overcrowded, and it badly needs an oil change. The government is the traffic enforcer. He’s underpaid, he’s criticized, and he’s got a big belly. The commuters are the Filipino people. They bitch, complain, and blame the economy and the government for the situation and yet they cross the road to get on board despite the large sign that reads “Tawirin Makamamatay”. And the government leaders are riding in their SUV with their “wangwangs” and police escort (no metaphor here). So who’s to blame?

Skeptic Tank is my regular column on Manila Times that comes out on Thursdays

keanu says:

October 11, 2008 at 1:02 pm

well most of us tend to just close our eyes and leave it…y????
cause all of us are in a hurry, whose not?
the mayor whose riding his toyota camry
the congressman whose riding his ford expedition
the senator whose riding his mitsubishi pajero
or the son’s and daughter’s of these bitches, to which they think that they more powerful than their parents and riding their brand new sports car or suv that was bought out of the money paid by the tax of a lowly filipino worker who bought 3kgs of rice, 1/2kgs of sugar, 1/4 kgs of galungong for his or her family???

i guezz ur ryt until we solve the problem which comes first, the egg or the chicken, this problems on the road wont stop.

who wants to stop on red signal, no one does, y? because no one will take their license for doing that stupid thing, anyone can pay 50 pesos for that…

u know what good thing is here, we have a gov’t agency to look after this drivers but we dont have any agency to look after for the commuters, drivers oh boy, i’ve been driving since i was in grade 4, got hold of my license when i was 17y/o – non professional drivers license, y non-prof, because i wanted less insult, rather than having a professional drivers license, y is that,i dont want to look idiot or a fool compared to my co-drivers who claims to be professional, wearing shorts and sando’s while transporting commuters, smoking inside their jeepneys, doesn’t know which is one way or not, doesn’t know if he’s overloaded, they are friends with the traffic enforcers so no nid to follow them, i can joke with them everytime. i think u know for a fact that both these license has the same exams, but what in the hell happen in the roads, they forget it, it suddenly disappears to our thoughts, how? this so called professional jeepney, bus, taxi or fx drivers that follows immediately an ambulance when they hear it “wang wang”, my goodness gracious, they stop whenever and wherever they want, professional even the ethics of the profession they dont know, how can they be called professional, LTO?????
and then LTO enforcers will be out on the street once in awhyl, for what to find out who is doing the ethical thing a driver should do, seatbelt, EWD, registration, etc and if found someone who is violating the RULES, they will take the license and ticket them or just arrange it on the site so that neither of them will be disturb

LTO – Land transportation office, the agency where we get our license and registration and they will also be the one to tell u that u are violating the LAW, in the first place, who has violated the law first, isn’t you guys (LTO). the law states that provide license to those who elligible to have it, how the hell that this stupid drivers got it???? i guez the 500 peso bill can speak for itself, how if LTO cannot answer true enough to themselves

well maybe this page will just be use to wipe someone elses ass, nothing will happen because neither u or me has something to do with this problem of the drivers, just stay put, maybe one day if one of us will be given the chance to head this agency this problem will be solve.. or

BETTER, PGMA JUST REMOVE THIS AGENCY AND TELL BF TO LET ALL PEOPLE WHO WANTS TO DRIVE, DRIVE, LETS MAKE THIS COUNTRY MORE MESSIER THAN EVER. GOOD IDEA, RIGHT!!!!