Friday, May 7, 2010

The Pinoy Jeepney


On my way to the Commission on Higher Education, I got a good tete a tete with Tatang, the taxi driver. Tatang was just so surprised to see a Sarao jeepney still on the road. He could tell the engine type of that jeepney and then he asked: Ba't nawala na yang Sarao?

While I was in Bahrain I happened to work with one descendants of the Sarao clan who pioneered the jeepney phenomenon in the country. He was my boss, a fellow English teacher. If I remember from his story, Sarao is not really gone, the patent on its engine is bought by a huge car company that operates in the Philippines. The Sarao family may have divested into other businesses. But I don't care. What is with the jeepney is the representation of the Filipino inguinity.

As what Tatang and I shared, you could look at other cars on Philippine roads, but the elegance, the strenght and the pride of the jeepney is really incomparable. One could only imagine, that jeepneys have longer life spans than that of other cars manufactured here or abroad that run on the roads. The engines in the jeepneys, are they ever new? 'Newness' of a jeepney is just virtual. The engines, according to my brother who is jeepney operator, are just refurbished, reconditioned, cannibalized from old jeepneys and then accessorized with new parts.

Wow! The jeepney is the mother of the transformers. It changes shape, sizes, colors and parts, but there are parts that are kept, the most important of all - engines. Tires are sometimes just recapped, the flooring is just sometimes padded or welded with new iron sheets. The chassis is sometimes just extended. Yet, the jeepney remains the king of the road.

There are jeepneys all over the country. There a laughing jeepneys. There are jeepneys with huge music amps. There are jeepneys with aircons. There are jeepneys used as trucks to transport goods. There are jeepneys with grills. There are jeepneys with fans. There are jeepneys with television. There are jeepneys without breaks. There are highly accesorized jeepneys. There simple jeepneys. There are jeepneys with ceilings painted ala Sistine chapel. There are jeepneys with seat springs that could prick your ass. There are just so many jeepneys to choose from. But during rush hours, its just an enduring challenge to get on one.

The jeepney is a representation of the Filipino inguinity. There is nothing in the wolrd like the jeepney. It's a symbol of the Filipino value for community and the sense of kapwa. At one time, I got a chance to ride a jeepney with several Korean students learning Tagalog. They were with their teacher. The teacher asked one student to pay. The Korean bent forward, bumping his head on the ceiling, was stopped by the teacher. She told her student that he didn't need to stand. He just had to stretch his hand then politely say "bayad po". She added someone else will get your fare and pass it on to the driver.

So, the jeepney can be classroom to learn manners, politeness,servitude and gratitude, and to learn about people's psyche and communicative behavior. Why did the jeepney engineers think of the seats to be placed that way? I could only rationalize that it must be because we value each other, we wanted to see each other while talking, and we wanted to be near with each other. The "bangko" in the pondohan or tiendas, are positioned in the same way. The stores are a place for small talks and gathering, a place called "tambayan" where friends gather.

I love the jeepney. There is just so much to learn about our nature as a Filipino as we try to understand more about the jeepney and the poeple we ride with it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

:)like this...btw the king of Kuwait bought a jeepney and placed it in the heart of Kuwait city,old people say that reason the brought the jeepney is because he want's the filipino in Kuwait to feel close to home :)-josun KW.

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