Clark/Angeles City - Take 1 - My Pet Peeve

Clark/Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines

I have been living here for the past 3 years. No matter how much I complain about this place, I'm still here--well, mainly because of my job.

Now that I think about it, the only thing I really hate about Clark/Angeles is the lack of metered taxis around. So, the main mode of transport are jeepneys and trikes only. There are taxis, but since these aren't metered, the flag down rate is dependent upon the operator, and for now, it's 250 pesos, which is absurd. Actually, these taxis have taxi meters but they never use them. Trike fees are somewhat equivalent to metered taxis you'll find in most urbanized Philippine cities. Although metered taxis aren't exactly cheap compared to jeepneys, these are the more comfortable way of getting anywhere under the sweltering Philippine weather. Not to mention when it's raining and it's just wet everywhere and the air becomes all the more humid.

I have absolutely no idea why the provincial or city government has done nothing about this (or maybe they have, who knows..). Transportation plays a very important role in the development of a city/town, everybody knows that. The government, I assume, is also aware of that. But why isn't anybody taking any action?

There are many, many foreigners in this place--both Asians and Caucasians--and I think that this may be one of the reasons why these taxis are still existing and making money. It's very sad that most Filipinos living in the area are unable to afford this simple comfort. Well, "afford" may be too strong a word because I believe quite plenty are able to. It's just that operators charge an absurdly high rate that people find it totally impractical to ride them unless you have no other choice, or are in an emergency.

I come from an urbanized city that, I think, is actually lesser developed than Clark. Well, not really lesser developed, but has, many times over, lesser multinational companies than Clark. But we have taxis, and loads of them, which makes it very convenient to go around. Trikes are unheard of, but we have our own version of it, a way cheaper one. The operators here are saying that the locals (meaning Filipinos, not necessarily local to this province) will not ride taxis because there are jeepneys and trikes, so they wouldn't earn much if they use their taxi meters. What a logic. I'm not the only one complaining, so I don't think that is the case. Doesn't the local government find it strange that there is nothing registered in the taxi meters every single month? Well, silly me. Of course, the operators are doing something about that.

After more than 3 years of being here, I still have not been able to get over this transportation nightmare of mine. I'm reminded of it each time the rain is pouring like crazy, each time I take the jeepney and the driver or the passenger next to the driver, or both, are smoking their hearts out. Each time I take the trike cursing myself that for the money that I'll be paying the driver, I would have been sitting comfortably in an air-conditioned taxi somewhere else. It seems like the only solution for me is to get my own car. However, since that's totally out of the question for now, I'll just have to deal with the situation and just suck it up.