Attention To Commuters

Here’s a story I would like to share with you, as this happened to me a few days ago. Especially you my friends who ride public utility jeepneys, read on.

I rode a jeep going to the mall a few days ago. This jeep was not in the proper place to pick passengers up, so he was in a hurry. He wanted me to move closer to the front so the passengers can ride and sit quickly. I did not move. He told me to move again, in a rather demanding voice. I waited a few seconds then I sat on the seat on the other side. Then he asked me, again in his demanding voice, “Saan ka ba bababa?” (Where will you alight?). I just said the place, rather irritated. Then we left.

Be alert - you might get blindsided.
Image credits here.

Minutes later, he stopped in the side of the road and told us “Meron pang tatlong hindi pa nagbabayad sa inyo.” (There are three of you who hasn’t paid yet). He waited and kept mumbling the same thing to us, then he said “104 dapat ang makuha ko” (I’m expecting 104 pesos). No one budged. Then one guy took his wallet out and paid. The driver said “Dalawa na lang” (Two more). Of course everyone thought they already paid, even me. I was disgusted but I don’t want to do a thing. Then one girl said “ibigay mo na lang yung bayad naming at bababa na lang kami” (Give us our money and we will just alight). This driver kept mumbling things like “kawawa naman ang drayber…” (poor driver…) and stuff which really irritated us. Finally one guy said “ibabayad ko na lang yung kulang para maka-alis na tayo, late na ako” (I’ll just pay for it so we can leave, I’m running late). Driver got the “missing” payments then moved on.

As we were approaching our destination, it just dawned into me to count the passengers. In my side we were five, across me are six, one in the front seat, twelve in total. Minimum payment in public jeepneys in the Philippines is eight pesos. I wasn’t alone; everybody was counting as well. We were being duped. As we went down, one girl shouted “manong mag-aral ka ng arithmetic! 96 pesos lang dapat makuha mo!” (Study arithmetic! You’ll just get 96 pesos!). In my furious rage, I jumped in the meleé, screamed at the driver and said almost the same thing but with explicit words that censorship would be very happy to edit it.

I was walking towards the mall really ticked off, until I saw her…

Moral of the story: BE ALERT AT ALL TIMES. The aggressive behavior of the driver towards me set the tone for his modus operandi later. We were all baffled when he stopped the jeep in the middle of the travel. Look at what people do for the money. That’s 24 pesos for credibility.

Again, BE ALERT at all times.