Reacting to last week’s column on public transportation, Gaudelia P. Javier wonders why, after all these years, “public transportation, especially jeepneys, are not standardized. It seems that they can be built in whatever size. It would be nice if there was a standard size and capacity so that passengers would not be uncomfortably ‘packed’ in.”
She notes: “Some jeepneys are too long, some are too high—making it too difficult to board or get off. Same with tricycles, some sidecars are too small, some too low.”
I should add that jeepneys are not even pretty anymore and no longer tourist attractions. They are often dirty and rusty, looking like they should have been consigned to the junk heap ages ago.
Javier also wants “the volume of their (public utility vehicles) radios… regulated. It seems that the well-being of the riding public is of no importance to the operators of these public transports.”
Another reader, Lito, says the transport problems are symptoms of a larger issue—overpopulation in Metro Manila, which “should have been of paramount concern.”
He points out that the problem cannot be solved because national policies do not discourage high birth rates. The very little economic development in many provinces “cause this mass exodus to Metro Manila.”
He adds that both the Metro Rail and Light Rail Transit systems “were installed… decades ago” when they carried less than half of the passengers they ferry now.
Miriam Suarez says the country’s transport system “is frustrating and people are mad, really mad. And I am one of the thousands of Filipinos suffering from such inefficiency, stupidity and indifference.” I will not discuss Suarez’s specific complaint against an airline, as I have referred it to the people concerned for comment and/or action.
A friend, who prefers not to be identified, says the LRT appears to have reduced the number of security guards in its stations. He says that when he took the train before Christmas, a suspicious-looking man in his late 20s was able to get into the coach reserved for senior citizens, women and persons with disabilities.
An elderly man fell unconscious, women with infants were pressed against each other, and kids were stepped on.
When my friend got off, he says he wanted to report the man who was in the wrong coach, but could not find any security guard. In the past, guards were usually on the platform when train doors opened. When my friend finally found one, he told him that there was “cost-cutting and the number of security guards was reduced at certain times.”
My friend says it was the wrong time to implement cost-cutting, given the huge volume of passengers that take the trains during the holidays. There was also the deadly Dec. 30 bombing some years ago to think about.
Online scam
Janet Quiambao warns people about a woman who peddles branded shoes and bags through an online selling site. She says that, through text messaging, she agreed to send her payment by courier and the shoes she was buying would be shipped through the same company.
Quiambao says she sent P5,300 but no shoes were delivered. Her remittance was claimed by someone in Marikina, though the seller said she lives in Ilocos. Quiambao says several other buyers had also been scammed.
It is the high risk of scams that OLX Philippines, the former sulit.com, advises its clients to buy from and sell only to people they can meet face to face.
Send letters to The Consumer, Lifestyle Section, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 1098 Chino Roces Ave. cor. Mascardo and Yague Sts., 1204 Makati City; fax 8974793/94; e-mail [email protected]
