It’s more than ironic that the Department of Tourism (DOT) is pushing for local government units (LGUs) to create a unique identity that can be “marketed” to tourists, while the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is all set to remove one of the most iconic symbols of Filipino culture and identity: the jeepney.
Like Cambodia’s bamboo trains, or Thailand’s tuk-tuk tricycles, jeepneys have served not just as a vital means of transport but also as a popular tourist attraction. Heck, no international artist or singer can really say he or she has visited the Philippines without having a jeepney ride.
And yet the DOTr seems to have pegged jeepneys as “eyesores” of our roads – conveniently forgetting the fact that 70 percent of our roads are occupied by private vehicles.
You know, instead of phasing them outright, we ought to preserve our jeepneys as a unique cultural symbol, even if only for tourists.
That’s what Cambodia did to the bamboo trains that have become the main means of transportation during the 1990’s.
Back then, rail service in Cambodia was almost non-existent, so enterprising residents decided to utilize the abandoned railway tracks using these improvised flatbed trains made of bamboo, akin to the trolleys that we used to see on our own railway tracks. (Sounds similar to the origin story of the jeepney, which was fashioned from American military jeeps that were left behind after World War II.)
By 2010’s, railroad service had been reintroduced in Cambodia, but the bamboo trains had by then become one of the most popular attractions among foreign tourists in that country.
And here’s the thing: rather than dispense with the bamboo trains entirely, the government instead built a dedicated railroad track so that local and foreign tourists alike can still enjoy the charm of speeding through the countryside in these improvised trains.
-o0o-
It’s telling, by the way, that a few LGUs actually want the jeepney to remain not only as a means of transport but also as a kind of a “culture symbol” for their towns.
In Malolos City, Bulacan, for instance, the owner-type “karatig” jeepney has become so entrenched in the city’s culture and identity that the LGU has reportedly asked the national government to retain these jeeps.
Not only have the “karatig” jeepneys become an icon of Malolos City, some sectors claim these owner-type jeepneys were actually suited for the city’s narrow streets, streets that most modern PUVs can’t even navigate. (I’ve heard of a similar issue on the modern PUVs operating in San Pedro City, Laguna, where some can’t access the steep and narrow streets of the Upper Villages).
It's ironic that, in our rush to become a modern nation, we are on the verge of completely erasing a cultural treasure, a symbol of the Filipino identity.
And you know what, I’m reminded of what a city mayor here in Laguna province once said: he does not want his city to become so modern that it has been virtually stripped of its unique identity.
That should be our mindset in “modernizing” our transport sector!
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #OpinYonColumn #ColumnbyJamesVeloso #UnCommonSense #TransportationandCulturalIdentity #DOT #DOTr #LagunaLGU