I am Calling it a Halt

I went to Davao recently to join a seminar facilitated by someone from the national office of our company. I had such a great time except for the 2 incidents of encounters of 2 cab drivers. The first one appeared not knowledgeable of the address that we gave him and so went a different route twice which led us to call for a halt for us to go down for he seemed to be not getting our instructions. The second one requested for an add on from the amount reflected in the cab meter.

I was greatly dismayed by the incidents. Though we found a way to joke with the experience but the reality is kind of painful as to how public violation of charging or confusing passengers has been taking its toll already. I am presuming no formal complaint has yet been forwarded to seriously address the concern (meron na ba?).


My arrival in Cagayan de Oro was another incident. The sad thing was, another plane passenger ( a foreigner UN peacekeeper) requested for my assistance to get a cab and another shameful strategy was presented by cab drivers - pushing forth a certain price other than using a taxi / cab meter.

Moreover, another incident was when i went back to the office after a whole day training. The cab driver made me choose which way to go (actually similar incident happened many times already). From this I immediately thought that he was testing me if i knew my way. I simply decided to find another cab for he was insisting that we would take the longer route since he knew better. This incident really put me to test as to handling and composing myself despite the emotional struggle with these encounters.


Last summer, when I arrived at our very own airport here in Cagayan de Oro, i was sort of "captive" to this same practice. I did not want to give in to such high "patong" to actual price. The good thing was this cab driver (that according to him was "not part of the association") gave me the ride after my sort of "discussion" about this practice.

On one hand, I did understand his explanation as to trying to make up with the high rental of the cab. I did understand him also with supplying for the needs of his family. He must be doing his best to provide for them well. But what i could not totally understand is that how this situation has been tolerated in our Cities (CDO, Davao, Cebu, Manila, etc...dami pang ibang places).


Well, I ended my conversation with that cab driver by saying " you know what manong, ang kwarta nga nakuha sa dili maayo nga pama-agi dali ra mawala. Sometimes ipa agi sa mga incidente nga dili nato gina expect sama sa mga sakit ug uban pa nga mga sitwasyon hangtud nga mahurot ato kwarta. Ug sometimes makapangutang pata (intawon naghinuktok si manong heheh)...". This one thing i learned from life. We always reap what we sow and life will always give back what we put into it. We don't expect for a bad quality seed to bring forth a good harvest right?


I thought i would just simply write something for my RANDOM THOUGHTS blog site (just like a brief "scribble" of notes) but as i run through the keys, there seem to another issue coming out - my visit in a government office for the processing of a business permit. The following were my observations :

1. there were lots of working tables at the city hall
2. a lot of them have no employees in place (perhaps...more vacancies? ...but not they are talking with other employees in another table, some eating, chatting, simply laughing and having fun...during office hours
3. as i approached someone to help me with the processing, i was readily served ( i was so glad to be received well) and thought i would finish faster( which i did). It was just that before finalizing the entire process i and the one that attended with me were interrupted by a group of friends that brought in some "goodies" of information for the processor's "consumption" and so she handed my paper to another processor who was so free to attend with me. As i held my eyes away from them, i heard the laughter and fun that they had (they must be so happy working so free in that kind of environment...huh? sad gyud oi).

Another last thing which i found a little funny but so true was the story related by my honey (hehe). He went to the city planning office looking for a particular office head. As he got in, he was met with a dimly lit office with people just whispering as they conversed with each other. And so he was like almost on his breaking laughter when he realized that people have nothing to do and so they just have to settle with such amount of light since they don't need much anyway.

At my end, i do feel helpless with such realities, for a lot of varied ways of stealing, cheating, etc have been going on around us. In many different forms, they manifest and i am hoping, in this writing, i would be able to reach out to more or a wider audience not really and solely for the purpose of making people aware but to invite us to DO SOMETHING to positively respond to these issues and concerns by making a difference ourselves.

What i mean can be the following :

1. not joining the "patong" style (for cab drivers) or giving in to their request
2. simply do your job - even and despite your boss is not around ( i work in
a private company ...and my experience is a constant following up, grilling and
prodding to produce an excellent output for each working day)


Truly, our actions have consequences - good or bad. We all know that human-made rules can be bent anytime but there are rules manned by the UNSEEN... GOD Himself. The Bible clearly states this (unfortunately, not everyone is attracted to reading it).


Thus, and perhaps, God, even without the Bible, from the very beginning marked His law in the hearts of men. When we sin we know and when we do otherwise, we feel His peace (for a calloused conscience...this one i say might be hard to "see" through the heart).

Lastly, being honed in a Catholic university run by the Jesuits, made me more conscious of the of valuing honesty, sincerity, respect of human dignity, giving justice, giving without counting the cost, making a difference and many more. Before, i felt more of the burden of the knowledge that i gained for they pushed me even more to propagate that consciousness of engaging in others' lives. At the moment, i feel the challenge of not considering it as such but an expression of Love emanating from the experience of being loved (hehe drama effect but i sincerely bow to this...fresh talaga from my 19th annotation retreat hehe).


To give this writing a strong push...hahay ...may i go straight to the point...we can never experience the peace of God when we run contrary to His work. Thus, putting "patong" to actual fare, not giving justice to task assigned or other forms of stealing that we know of that we feel we are putting on gray areas for they appear light (lytch lang hehe), we tolerate the ill of sin to slowly creep in our society, in our system. This one i say springs from a heart that allowed the contamination of sin. Thus, i am suggesting a halt!!!!... to do what's right and to sin no more... (grabe ka strong hehe)

This is for all of us...God bless us all!


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P.S. One day in the past, i hoped and prayed that there will be some kind of massive entrapment operations for taxi drivers... and office managers will wholeheartedly respond to this. But sana there will be no such incident to happen before change will take place. My prayer now is...that this will not fall on deaf ears and hearts...:-) I feel God will move us ...i feel positive and hopeful for all of us...Amen...:-)