Nightshift:call center agent’s blog

News reports started coming today about the “transport holiday” of some PUV drivers. The areas of Monumento in Caloocan, Edsa-Northbound section, Cubao and Philcoa, just to name a few, were filled with hundreds of passengers waiting for their ride. Although the government dispatched some vehicles for stranded passengers, it is never enough since it has limited routes.

The primary reason for the strike is the demand of the organizations to have a unified ticketing system in Metro Manila.

“Since the LGU’s started coming out with its own traffic tickets, they subsequently implemented other money-making schemes like mandatory stickers etc which the main objective is to raise revenue, all these money-making schemes has bred wide scale corruption on the road,” said George San Mateo, secretary general of the group Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide or Piston.

This issue on corruption came on the light of result of the survey released by Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. (PERC). It said that among 1, 400 expatriates surveyed, the Philippines was conceived to have the most corrupt economy.

What’s new with this? We have been openly talking about NBN-ZTE scandal, we came to remember the terms “Sec, may 200 ka dito” “moderate the greed” and “bubukol.” Then there’s “Hello, Garci,” the fertilizer fund scam, Cyber-Education, almost all government projects are marred with corruption.

But I noticed that small-time corruption (if there’s such as thing as small) starts not in the Palace but more so in the road. Notice this: a passenger jeepney waits for passengers in front of a gasoline station. Usually, gasoline stations automatically serve as terminal for PUVs. Here comes some enterprising Filipinos, men and women alike, who shout on top of their voices, the destination of the jeeps. When the jeep is filled up, they would ask for money from the driver, most of the time, it’s P 1 per passenger who rode the jeep. If the driver refuses to give money, the dispatcher would kick the vehicle or cuss the driver.

Here’s the logic: even if there’s no dispatcher shouting, passengers will still take the jeep because it’s a public transport. Some drivers even have their own “konduktor” to shout and collect the fare.

Boses lang ang puhunan, may tubo ka pa.