Jeepney Drivers Blame Gov’t for Oil Price Increases

With the passage of the Oil Deregulation law in 1996, Ibon Foundation said, oil prices increased by four hundred percent.  Jeepney drivers cope by working longer hours and diskarte (streetwise ways), meaning weaving through traffic, cutting trips, and others. 

BY MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat

Jovito Pulmon, jeepney driver, used to start plying his route at 5 a.m. and return to the garage at 11p.m. –a total of 16 hours of work on the road. That was in the early nineties. At that time, he and his fellow drivers earned an average of P400 per working day. They can work such long hours for they do not work every day. Another driver will drive ‘his’ jeepney, working the same 5am to 11pm hours the next day. In Metro Manila, at least two or three drivers regularly share a livelihood out of one jeepney.

They used to spend about P300 to P400 for diesel in the early nineties. But in 1996 the oil deregulation law was enacted. Prices of petroleum products started increasing more often, more drastically for the past few years.  Ibon Foundation said that average prices of petroleum products had more than doubled by 2005 as compared to 2001, Arroyo’s first year in power. Since the oil deregulation law in 1996, Ibon Foundation said, oil prices increased by 400 percent.

Jovito Pulmon and his fellow jeepney drivers estimate that their P300 to P400 crude bill in early 90s had spiked to more than P900 by 2005. Despite fare adjustments, their take-home money has dwindled. If they work the same number of hours, their take home pay will just be sufficient to buy them lunch.   

Coping mechanisms

To earn something more than their lunches, Jovito Pulmon, a jeepney driver and a local leader of Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper Nationwide (Piston or Unity of Drivers’ Associations Nationwide), says jeepney drivers today extend their already long working hours. Yesteryear’s start of 5 a.m. is now 3 a.m. to 4 a.m., and back-to-garage time has stretched out to 12 midnight or later.

Despite lengthened driving hours though, Jovito says they’re lucky to make about P200. Seldom do they get a take-home of P400. 

“Because more people today are poorer and jobless, they don’t go out that often,” Jovito told Bulatlat. Whenever a firm closes down or retrenches workers, jeepney drivers immediate feel it in lack of passengers.

A Piston study reveals that in certain Metro Manila routes, a jeepney used to carry an average of 500 passengers in 16 hours of plying its route. But due to today’s higher unemployment levels, these passengers have lessened by 150.

Poorer now, Pulmon says, some passengers just hastily get off the jeep without paying; or they’d pay the minimum fare of P7.50 even if their destination is beyond the minimum four kilometers.

“We can question them,” Pulmon says, “but when you’re tired or busy negotiating the streets and looking out for additional passengers, you no longer want to quarrel with your passengers.”

Other drivers bring someone along to take charge of getting payments. “But some non-payers still manage to squeeze through,” they said.

Even the discounted fares for students and senior citizens have begun to eat through the jeepney drivers’ earnings. “Gasoline stations don’t discount its diesel for students and the senior citizens – it’s the drivers who pay for that.”

A jeepney driver’s “diskarte” (streetwise ways) now assumes greater importance, if they are to subsist at all. This means weaving through traffic to get as much passengers as they can and round a trip as quickly as traffic would allow. This result to the common complaints leveled against jeepney drivers –lack of road courtesy, cutting trip, long wait for passengers, etc. It also renders them vulnerable to apprehension by traffic enforcers with their costly tickets and kotong (bribes). 

Worse traffic and violation tickets

While the skyrocketing prices of fuel is the main cause of drivers’ woes, worsening traffic conditions and the traffic enforcers’ penchant for kotong and issuing traffic citation tickets further aggravate it.

Traffic enforcers, be they from the Metro Manila Development Authority(MMDA), local government, Land Transportation Office (LTO), Traffic Management Group (TMG), or the police, are supposed to take care of the flow of traffic. “But they’re more mindful of catching erring drivers than easing the flow of traffic,” lamented members of Piston.

Pushed by the need to earn a little bit more, jeepney drivers indeed do violate traffic rules at times. But they complained that they also get apprehended because traffic enforcers have a quota in the number of traffic citation tickets they have to issue in a day or in the money they make.

Piston-affiliated drivers claim the government squeezes hard-earned money from drivers not only through the P4/liter tax on crude but also through fees for traffic violations, real or imagined. The government shares 25% of these fees with the issuing traffic enforcers. Piston drivers said that government encourages traffic enforcers to issue tickets.

Colorum jeepneys

Ever noticed tiny multi-colored stickers on some jeepneys’ windshields? Every color of the strip of sticker signifies a pay-off to certain traffic enforcers, so they won’t be apprehended for being colorum (no franchise to ply that route). Such stickers also enable jeepneys with legitimate franchises to ply “out of line,” meaning to extend or cut short their route.

There are colorums simply because there are routes where the LTO no longer issues jeepney franchises, forcing some operators to take franchises elsewhere (say, in the provinces) to get yellow plates. They then use their jeeps to ply routes in metro manila, in the process providing traffic enforcers and police protectors a steady source of kotong. 

Scrap Oil Deregulation law

Jovito Pulmon lamented that jeepney drivers enjoy no comprehensive program and benefits for their sector, despite their important job of transporting people to their work and other destinations. 

Worse, Piston members disclosed, pertinent government agencies and traffic enforcers blame jeepney drivers for the worsening traffic situation in the metropolis. Lately, President Gloria Arroyo herself wants to blame them for fare increases.

“It would be better if they scrap the oil deregulation law instead,” suggested the jeepney drivers. And while at it, the government might just as well truly take care of the worsening traffic condition in the metropolis, Jovito Pulmon said.

The ultimate solution not only to jeepney drivers’ plight but also to that of their dwindling passengers would be national industrialization, said members of Piston. This would provide meaningful jobs to more people and enable them to go places, maybe even improve on the jeepneys. 

For the meantime though, Jovito Pulmon and his fellow drivers have to engage in cat and mouse games with so-called traffic enforcers, and work extended hours for a pittance. Bulatlat 

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