Argument because of a peso or 2 pesos

by: Ancheden J. Pacamalan


Have you ever experienced having an argument with a konduktor sa jeep because of a peso or 2 pesos? I did! (I was with friends) It was really irritating and embarrassing. I will never forget that day. August 30 2008. Around 5:00 pm.

Many Kagay-anons have this kind of experience; parents, office workers and especially students (Just like me!). This kind of incident started a long, long time ago and obviously this will continue for also a long, long time.

Perhaps majority of the Kagay-anons are not aware of the increase of jeepney fare so i guess it is understandable. This kind of argument may be a usual sight for some time because of the increase of the basic commodities, jeepney fare is affected.

Anyway, back to my own experience. I do believe it was the konduktor's fault though. We came from our PERSONS Program that day. It is a requirement of Philosophy 30 Generic Ethics wherein we render services such as scrubbing, sweeping and mopping.

The fare from West Bound Terminal to Cogon Market for students is P 8.50. But we were bound to Xavier University and Xavier University is not in Cogon Market. So, it is just P 8.00 but the konduktor asked for P 10.00 from us. We told him it is just P 8.50 and we were to give him P9.00 because we did not have 50 centavos.

He (the konduktor) insisted that we should look at the taripa (list of jeepney fare) and we did! And it was really P 8.50!

I did not have any idea what he was into. Perhaps he was trying to deceive us and for him to be able to extract more money from us. But at the end of the argument we yielded because we did not have any coins. Only P 50.00 and a P10.00 coin.

Maybe he thought we did not have classes so the student fare did not take effect. The student fare is only effective during classes.

But hey! It was Saturday and we did have a class on that day.

What happened to us was because of poverty. People would get into fight because of a peso or 2 pesos. Lesson? Let us start to value a peso or 2. It does matter. It is a big deal for especially those who are below poverty line.

Doing well in our respective fields can make a difference to the lives of other people.