PAREDES
The redesigns for the old jeepney being proposed by certain foreign-owned car companies commissioned by the government gives the Philippine “King of the Road” a really modern makeover.
They feature more streamlined designs; so expect to see less of those folk art elements like the intricate stainless steel trimmings, wrought iron frills, winged cast aluminum horses, bold fancy lettering of native witticism and miniature paintings of dreamy beaches or rice fields.
They now have energy-efficient fuel-injection engines or may even be purely electric. They are a lot roomier, air-conditioned and may even have Wi-Fi or karaoke on board.
A lot of commuters want to have them implemented as soon as possible. They are fed up with those junks that squeeze them like sardines in a can.
And with politicians here in Cebu trying to shoot down each other’s plans for either a Bus Rapid Transit or a light rail train, it looks like it’s still a long way before Cebu will have a decent mass transportation system. Meanwhile, we are stuck with these antiquated machines that look like they’re going to fall apart on the road in the middle of the trip.
That almost happened recently as I took a tiny but jam-packed multicab from Banilad to Consolacion. Somewhere in Mandaue, the jeepney conked out but somehow the driver managed to restart it before the passengers went down.
Then in the middle of heavy traffic in the highway near Consolacion, it conked out again. This time, all the passengers left for another jeepney as the driver failed to restart the vehicle. As I waited for the next jeepney, I watched the poor driver try to fix the vehicle with a few tools, all by himself.
There is admittedly something of this kind of do-it-yourself punk character in the whole system of the jeepney. It could be traced back to the chaos and privations of the postwar years, when some Pinoy mechanic tried to address the urgent need for public transportation. Seeing that there had been a lot of surplus US Army jeeps left behind by the Americans, he salvaged or cannibalized some and assembled them into running condition.
But because army jeeps were too short, he extended its body, added upholstered benches and a tin roof for protection for rain and sun. Thus, the Pinoy mechanic was able to invent an all-purpose peacetime minibus out of the small American combat vehicle.
Born with the jeepney was the whole industry that mass-produced it. The Pinoy mechanics eventually made fortunes during those postwar years manufacturing jeepneys from garages that soon grew into factories. To improve the jeepney, they had to develop skills and equipment in machining, welding, casting, blacksmithing, and other forms of metalcraft.
They also needed to learn and invest on facilities for upholstering, painting and electrical installations. Craftsmen skilled in making all sorts of decorative elements had to be hired to adorn the vehicle, giving it a unique contemporary Filipino folk art look.
In other words, a typical jeepney factory is really a showcase of different Filipino craftsmanship. It remains, however, limited in its capabilities since we are not a fully industrialized country. There is no local industry that could completely process iron into finished products, such as engines and other complicated automotive parts. So, local jeepney manufacturers have to build around engines that were imported abroad.
Competing with these factories is a whole network of small automotive repair shops or talyers, junk shops selling secondhand parts, vulcanizing shops, upholstery shops, car painting shops, shops that specialize on fixing radiators, windows, air-con, electronics, detailing, etc. There are even sari-sari stores that sell gasoline or diesel in softdrink bottles everywhere. Finding all these shops easily along the road makes for quick fixes.
Government regulation was almost nil during the infancy of the jeepney. This encouraged anyone to start operating a jeepney franchise. A driver may be hired or may rent the jeepney from the operator. Or in some cases, the operator himself drives the vehicle. Running a jeepney is usually a small family affair, with the operator being seen as a kind of patron of the drivers and conductors who rely on him. It reflects, what Nick Joaquin calls, our “culture of smallness.”
The whole business thrives on this lack of strict regulation that is almost a kind of laissez faire capitalism. This attitude of just letting people run their business without or the least government interference eventually led to a sense of entitlement among drivers and operators alike. They feel, for example, that traffic laws are there only as “suggestions.”
So it is easy to see why jeepney drivers and operators are not impressed with the proposed jeepney makeovers. They see them as part of the whole plan to wipe out not only the obsolete jeepneys but the old seemingly anarchic system. They see something fishy in the deals being negotiated between politicians and car company executives. They see big business taking over to monopolize the jeepney business.
Right now, we are seeing the slow demise of the talyer as owners of motor vehicles increasingly fall prey to planned obsolescence hiding behind claims of advanced technology by the mighty casa.
Designed by foreign car companies, the proposed jeepneys look comfy and sleek. But in essence, they are not jeepneys anymore.