Geloy and Nor have found their place next to home. It’s not in school where they should be educated, not even in church or in a normal workplace or office. Both in their 20’s, they’ve been comfortable shouting, talking with their colleagues, walking and running along the side streets.
With dilapidated pair of shoes or slippers, torn clothes, grilled skin, dried hair and stinks, being soaked under the heat of the sun or chilliness of the rain and smoke will never matter. As long as they’re given five to ten pesos per jeep for a fee, that will do. As for Geloy, “I’ve seen the dire need of helping my family. I am only a highschool graduate so you can’t expect me to be employed in good businesses. After all, some of my friends are here too.”
Both of them are ‘dispatchers’ or as they are called by some, ‘jeepney barkers.’ Their ‘career’ is to prey on passengers to jeepney drivers. Here, they need not acquire a college degree. All they have are courage to face people and convince them to have a ride on the jeep, voice to instruct passengers as to where they should take their ride and guts to ask for a ‘pocket terminal’ or the sort of service fee to the drivers.
It was Friday, around 6:00 o’clock in the evening. In front of SM city in Ecoland, where jeepneys usually stop for 10 minutes or more to wait for passengers, there were Geloy and Nor together with some other dispatchers. They were busy picking on passengers. It was a peak-hour – passengers rushed on their way home, a bumper-to-bumper scenario of traffic, etc. Geloy was busy ‘escorting’ prospect passengers crossing the streets towards the jeepneys. Nor, on the other hand, was standing in front of the entrance of the jeep shouting for the route and asking one passengers and the others as to where they were heading.
Both of them have other jobs though. For Geloy, he sometimes borrows his neighbors motorcycle to have it served as public utility vehicle. Nor has his plumbing. With three mouths to feed, Nor has to really find a way to cope with their daily expenses.
One day, as he was walking along the street of Ecoland a year ago, he saw some people dispatching which gave him the idea of entering into such too. As he put it, “My oldest child is still three years old and my youngest is still three months old. With only a highschool diploma at hand, dispatching is the easiest job to be in. So, I don’t care.”Nor however doesn’t want to be stocked in this lifestyle especially that he has dreams for his children. But for the meantime, as long as plumbing is not yet s stable, and as long as job opportunity is concerned, he will still be dispatching for the sake of additional income. While for Geloy, “Studying? That would be very impossible considering that we are so broke. I’m gaining so that’s ok for me.”
This reflects that fact the a lot of people are not given proper employment and social welfare program. It can be noted that In 2005, according to www.cia.gov, unemployment rate in the Philippines reached to about 12.2% with 40% total population below poverty line. With a high annual population growth, unequal distribution of resources, higher oil prices, inflations, and political turmoil, as www.cia.gov, has commented, “It will take a higher, sustained growth path to make appreciable progress in the alleviation of poverty.” That’s the mere reason why many people are trying to be resourceful, earning for a living in whatever ways that they can think ok.
On dispatching, the city government of Davao arrested some of the dispatchers before on the ground of violation against the Anti-Barking Ordinance. But, as stipulated in the ordinance, only those barkers who were using sound system such as megaphones would be penalized. So, they freed those dispatchers.
However, the city council has proposed and deliberated over the Anti-Dispatching Ordinance. This ordinance has not yet been approved. If ever, this can be the best weapon so that dispatchers will be penalized for their undue practices, if there is any. This threatens not only Gely and Nor but also their colleagues.
But they are not just dispatchers.
They are not just eye-sores or public disturbs.
“We are also of great help especially to those people who need to find their right route. We’re also helping elders and those who have lots of baggage, cross the streets,” Geloy proudly said. But more than that, “We are at the same time helping commuters who are victims of snatching. In fact, we have caught a couple of snatchers already,” Nor stressed.
In the end, they both concluded and agreed: Dispatching is better as compared with snatching or stealing. At least, they’re not only helping their families but also helping others in terms of street matters.
If there’s one thing very common to both of them, that would be their ‘smile’ amidst the fact that they are far less than the others economically speaking. This signifies their happy acceptance of where they are and hope that someday they’ll be able to have their lives be uplifted.
While others are into making money out from internal organs of pigs or chicken, habal-habal, ukay-ukay, or any other sidelines, these people like Geloy and Nor are making use of their voice, strength and convince power in the streets through the jeepneys and passengers to be able to gain an income. That is indeed, only in the Philippines. “We have to be wise and tough enough for us to live. Dispatching violates nothing and we see it as a job that will provide us somehow with the things we need everyday,” both of them happily ended.
This case just shows one thing: FILIPINO RESILIENCE.
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