Jeepney

You can say what you want about me, but I have never taken to OPM the way I have to foreign, which is to say, English language music. First made aware of music during the so-called British Invasion in the ‘60’s, I quite naturally grew up and lived my life liking and loving melodies in this foreign tongue.

I did, and still do, love a few songs in Tagalog and Cebuano, mainly from only two Pinoy Rock groups --Asin and Juan dela Cruz Band. The latter had one particularly jaunty number called "Beep Beep Beep" which was a vignette of the life of a jeepney driver. I remember the song because pretty soon we may all have to say goodbye to both jeepney and driver.

If plans do not miscarry, a sizeable number of jeepney drivers across the country are expected to launch, beginning today, a series of strikes meant to last a whole week. They are protesting the phaseout of old jeepneys by December this year to give way to more modern, cleaner, safer, and more comfortable means of public transportation.

While I do pity the drivers and their families, I do have to admit and say that it is about time this long-delayed development must come to pass. Like all things, even the beloved jeepney must give way to changes that have made its continued patronage impractical and a losing proposition any which way you look at it. In a word, it has become obsolete.

Having said that, I will no longer go into the issues making up the pros and cons of the matter. The jeepney has to go, period. It's just a matter of when. To me the strike is just a painful, inconvenient way of prolonging the inevitable. Besides, only the jeepney has to go. The drivers, while alive, will eventually find other, and hopefully better, means of living.

Indeed, now would be the best time to let go. We have a president who is very gung-ho about progress, modernization and development. He is a president with an unprecedented mandate and thus a huge political capital that cannot just be expended quickly on a few critics and even fewer mistakes. In other words, you can't cross a leader on a high roll.

So let me now just say my advance goodbyes to the jeepney. And I will begin by saying a very huge part of my life was spent riding jeepneys. My earliest recall of the jeepney fare was 10 centavos between home in Mandaue and school in Cebu City. If you think I have no heart for drivers, you are wrong. I still remember three from the ‘60’s: Cido, Dulo, and Opi.

Cido drove a Sarao jeepney, Dulo a Thames, and Opi, believe it or not, a Cheding. Yes, a Mercedes converted from a God-knows-what German contraption from before I was born. Anyway, I remember these three because theirs were the only jeepneys that passed through Magallanes where the Colegio del Santo Nino was, and still is.

Needless to say, I had to catch any one of the three early weekdays if I had to make my classes on time. On the way home afternoons, you have to catch them at Carbon, where they park to wait for passengers. No such thing as continuous running for jeepneys in laid-back Cebu in those days. "Mingaw pa kaayo ang Sugbo niadto."

Clearly, my goodbye to the jeepney needs a Part II. Please watch for it.