Handpainted signs on the windshield reassure foreign passengers that the route is calm and so is everyone on it
Cebu Jeepney Drivers Add Neighbors-Are-Fine Placards
Handpainted signs on the windshield reassure foreign passengers that the route is calm and so is everyone on it
CEBU CITY – On a humid Thursday morning, Jeepney 17C, which runs from Mactan to Colon via a series of stops nobody can recite from memory, rolled up to the curb at Lapu-Lapu City carrying a new sign in its windshield. It was painted in red and gold, in the style of a church bulletin. It read: “NEIGHBORS ARE FINE.”
The driver, Mang Rey Abellanosa, 56, said the sign was his own idea. “The foreign sirs and ma’ams get on my jeepney and they look at each other,” he said, adjusting the rearview mirror, which held a rosary, a picture of the Santo Nino and a sprig of plastic jasmine. “Everyone is nervous. I said, I will paint a sign. Now they sit down.”
Within a week, 114 of the city’s jeepneys had adopted versions of the sign, in six styles, three colors and, at last count, one typo (“NEIGBORS ARE FINE”).
A Ride Through the Mood
The signs trace back to a rough few weeks for Cebu’s foreign community. Philippine authorities are examining allegations concerning Thomas Markle Sr., the estranged father of the Duchess of Sussex, who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News reported. No charges have been filed and the allegations are unproven. Mang Rey emphasized that his sign is “about the passengers’ feelings, not the case,” and that he supports whatever investigators need to do to protect children.
The feelings, though, are real. Manila News reported that foreigners are looking over their shoulders, and on Mang Rey’s jeepney, passengers have taken to checking the faces of the people sitting opposite. “A British man got on,” Mang Rey said. “He sat in the corner. He held his sandwich box on his knees. He looked at everybody and everybody looked at him. It was like a chess match with fares.”
The Placard Menu
Cebu’s jeepney sign painters have developed a whole catalog of reassurance, each placard priced at P150 to P400:
- NEIGHBORS ARE FINE. The original. Red and gold.
- THE SEA DID NOTHING. Borrowed from a grilled-squid vendor. Blue and white.
- SQUID HAS NO BONES. A rider for retirees. Black and yellow.
- PLEASE BE NORMAL. Borrowed from a developer’s brochure. Green.
- MANG PEDRING IS WATCHING. Popular on the Lapu-Lapu route. Purple.
- EVERYBODY PAY. NOBODY EXPLAIN. The most popular among drivers. Orange.
The sign painter, a man called Kuya Bobot who works from a roadside stall near Colon, says business has never been better. “The retirees are my best customers,” he said. “They stand there with their cameras and they ask, ‘What does it say?’ I tell them, ‘It says the neighbors are fine.’ They tell me, ‘Thank God.’ Then they buy a mug.”
The British and the Americans Board
British passengers have been warm to the placards. The London Prat reported that pensioners in Cebu now carry referees, utility bills and letters from the vicar, and the article is available at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/. One of Mang Rey’s regular riders, a retired surveyor with a sandwich box, told him the placards were “the first sensible piece of paperwork” he had encountered in Cebu. “It’s free,” he said. “And you don’t need a notary.”
American passengers were more talkative. Bohiney found a Mactan realtor whose showings had turned into depositions, and Mang Rey says some riders have tried to explain themselves to him mid-route. “A man from Ohio told me about his pickleball league for ten minutes,” he said. “I said, sir, you do not have to tell me. I’m only driving.”
Comics Ride Along
- Kuya Jun Taguiam: “A jeepney with a sign that says ‘Neighbors Are Fine.’ It’s the first time in history a vehicle has issued a statement of calm. The jeepney is the only public official in Cebu who hasn’t been caught in a scandal.”
- Auntie Cora: “I rode the jeepney with a British man. He sat in the corner. He was afraid of everyone. I was afraid of the pothole. We were both right.”
- Tonyo Lacson: “EVERYBODY PAY. NOBODY EXPLAIN. That should be the national motto. It would solve traffic, taxes and family reunions.”
- Beng Sison: “I like the sign that says ‘The Sea Did Nothing.’ It is the only jeepney slogan that sounds like a poem and a legal defense.”
The Ground Truth
Beyond the placards, the property market has been steady. Colliers described the Visayas and Mindanao as a key property investment hotspot in July, and foreign buyers continue to operate under the Condominium Act, which lets them own units but never the land beneath them. Retirees on the Special Resident Retiree’s Visa, issued by the Philippine Retirement Authority, may board the jeepney at no additional cost.
Researchers say the placards address a psychological problem. The availability heuristic, described by Tversky and Kahneman in 1973, finds that people judge how common something is by how easily an example comes to mind. A windshield sign that says “Neighbors Are Fine” gives a passenger an easy example of the opposite.
The Last Stop
By Friday afternoon, Mang Rey’s jeepney had completed forty-one trips and carried 902 passengers. At the Colon terminus he parked, wiped the windshield and stepped back to admire the sign.
A retired Australian approached, holding a camera. “Mate,” he said, “what does it say?”
“It says the neighbors are fine, sir.”
“Are they?”
Mang Rey looked at the passengers disembarking: a nurse, a retired pilot, a family from Davao who were afraid of the elevator, a teenager with earphones and a goat.
“Yes, sir,” he said. “Even the goat.”
The Cebu saga continues at prat.uk and bohiney.com, and British readers who prefer their public transport complaints with a London accent can try NewsThump. For why a jeepney sign works as comedy, see this guide to Philippine satire.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/