The Jeepney: Change, Resistance, and Uncertainty in Urban Transport
Louis Westerkamp
Abstract
Public transport is one of the many intertwined and complex urban issues. In the case of Metro Manila, Philippines, so-called Jeepneys are the main mode of public transport – and highly contested. The Jeepney is considered both a national symbol and a nuisance and exists in a highly fragmented yet job-providing sector that the state envisions becoming green and modern. This project hopes to shed some light on all the practices, discourses, entanglements, and appropriations of and within the sector.Project Description
In the Philippines, Jeepneys are ubiquitous. The hand-crafted public utility vehicles (PUV) are the backbone of Metro Manila’s public transport system and are considered a national symbol. At the same time, however, Jeepneys are criticized for being a nuisance on Manila’s roads: They are loud, chaotic, and harmful to the environment. In 2017, the Filipino government presented the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) to formalize and modernize the sector. While many Filipinos acknowledge the sector’s need for modernization, the PUVMP has received backlash for being ‘anti-poor’ and neoliberal. Critics expect many jobs to be at risk if the PUVMP pushes through.In a first step, the PUVMP forced franchise holders and jeepney operators to form cooperatives if they wanted to continue operations. The deadline ended on December 31, 2023. However, many unions and jeepney operator and driver associations (JODAs) resisted consolidation. During my exchange semester at the Ateneo de Manila University, I spent about two months from late October to late December 2023 in a disputed sector that is anticipating what might and might not come in between the push for development, urban resistance, and uncertainty.
As this has been my first fieldwork experience, much of it was intentionally tentative and experimental, forcing me to be reflexive and less theory-driven. Generally, my ethnographic fieldwork had three foci:
- Firstly, I tried to become familiar with the field and its actors, embracing what initially felt like the ‘chaos’ of Metro Manila’s streets and learning the everyday rules and practices of commuting using the Jeepney in Metro Manila.
- Against the backdrop of continued protests, I visited various rallies to understand the cross-sectoral alliances and the reasons, aspirations, and expectations of various actors and organizations.
- Lastly, I tried to establish rapport with various actors. While, initially, my goal was to get to know drivers and operators and learn about their everyday struggles and how they negotiate these, I later became more involved with political organizations leading the mobilization against the PUVMP.