THE PINOY JEEPNEY

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

In my lifetime, I will probably have to live with the largely inefficient but reliable jeepney as a principal mode of land transportation in the country.

Although Metro Manila will be interconnected within the next ten years by an elevated train system that will compete with those buses, taxicabs, and the like, the lowly jeepney is expected to persist to provide the secondary mode of transport in some main routes and the primary transport in most of the secondary routes.

I have my reasons for this belief on the jeepney.

First, the Filipino jeepney has a life of its own. Second, it represents a specific culture, which will not die easily. Third, it is the soul of the nation.

From the Willys jeeps, which the American liberation forces left after the last war, the jeepney has evolved to represent what is distinctly Filipino. 

When the Willys jeeps ran out, Filipino manufacturers exercised their fabled ingenuity by reconditioning those used engines imported from Japan (mostly Isuzus) to replace those wartime Willys jeeps. 

Henceforth, the jeepney has evolved to typify the Filipinos' temperament and sense of ingenuity, expediency, and individualism.

Showing imagination, the Filipinos added a body to the old Willys jeeps, called it a jeep, and loaded passengers and cargoes loaded without letup, making it a principal modes of land transport. 

Also, their respective owners decorated their jeepneys with artworks, making it uniquely and distinctly Filipino in appearance.

Over the years, the jeepney plies the major land routes, making it the virtual king of the road. 

But, as it crisscrosses the death and breadth of the country, the distinctly jeepney culture has also evolved.

On his own from sunrise to sundown, the jeepney driver is a living symbol of the Filipino sense of individualism, independence, and industry. 

Say what you want against the jeepney driver, including his lack of discipline and perceived ill-breeding, but the unvarnished truth is that he is his own man.

He drives the jeepney and plies its route - alone. He is also its driver, collector, and conductors; he drives, collects fares from passengers and gives them change; and conduct them in every corner of the road.

The jeepney reflects the driver's bawdy sense of humor. A typical jeepney has graffitis that show the lighter side of life.

"God knows Judas not pay," "Pagkakaipitin lang ng magkahusto," "Binata po ang driver, jingle lang ang pahinga," "Your credit is good, but we need cash" - these are among the standard messages that could be found on the jeepney's interior.

Lately, a different sense of oxymoron are on Filipino jeepneys. I've seen these jeepneys plastered with messages. "Sosayting poor," "palikerong mapagmahal," "mahinhing talipandas," and "milyonaryong gipit."

In the 1980s and 1990s, was the source of ownership indicated on the jeepney's body. Messages like "Katas ng Arabia," "Katas ng Iran" or "katas ng Dubai" were visible, as overseas Filipino workers returned home and bought jeepneys to start a new life in the country.

An angry owner had his jeepney carrying this message: "Puro kayo katas."

But amid all those messages, the jeepney is a symbol of Filipinos' deep sense of religiosity. 

One could not find a jeepney without a mini-altar or an image of Jesus Christ on the upper middle part of the windshield, reflecting his breeding as a Roman Catholic. 

The central location of this mini-altar indicates that even a sense of religiosity is deep in his consciousness.

Lately, the jeepney is having a hard time to survive as its main manufacturer, Sarao Motors, had closed shop more than a decade ago, although it has been reported to have opened shop two yearsago. 

A number have started to conk out. Moreover, it faces competition from the fleet of air-conditioned FX units, which the Japanese car manufacturers have built en masse.

But it is also having a second wind too.

The jeepney is expected to stay at least for another generation. This is because we can not afford to kill a distinctly Filipino culture, which it represents. 

But it has to give way to progress.