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After several token attempts from past regimes, the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte had shown its determination to put order in the streets.

The nation’s romance with the anachronistic jeepney is expected to remain notwithstanding the long-delayed public transport modernization program of the government.

After several token attempts from past regimes, the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte had shown its determination to put order in the streets.

Jeepneys are once the untouchables of Philippine roads and are treated as a sacred relic similar to the idolation in India of Brahman cows in that putting a jeepney out of commission is considered taboo.

Jeepneys have proven they are not called kings of the road for nothing as they dictate the flow of the economy when they hold a strike whenever policies went amiss of the interest of drivers and operators.

In terms of the power of trade unions, only jeepney operators and drivers can boast the clout that the government immediately reacts to.

The vehicles, which were heirlooms of the American liberating forces of World War 2, have become symbols of Filipino culture and part of local folklore as they are recognizable as the Philippine flag as national symbols.

Lately, the chaos in the streets has been traced to the imperious attitudes of jeepney drivers who wallow in the belief that they are driving an indispensable part of the nation’s consciousness.

The exigencies of progress, nonetheless, carry the requirement to modernize which was the raison d’etre for the current effort to revamp the public transportation system.

As always, modernization and preservation of culture can go together as have been proven in so many instances when those two social necessities clash.

The jeepney, as resilient as the contraption is, is expected to find a way to blend into the sweet spot of progress.