Barkers, drivers and a conductor who collects fares by memory agree the royal brothers need to ride the same jeep for once
Review From the Driver Seat
MANILA – The drivers of the Baclaran to Divisoria jeepney route along Taft Avenue have delivered a collective review of the London Prat story that has Prince William calling Earl Spencer and Harry traitors, compiled during a single afternoon of traffic, passenger pickups and fare disputes over one peso.
The review was assembled by the route association, which met at the terminal under a tarpaulin advertising a noodle brand, and was recorded on a clipboard belonging to a barker known only as Boy Tiyaga, who has been shouting destinations at the same corner for 22 years.
The Story Summarised for Passengers
Driver Mang Ernesto Bautista, 57, whose jeep is painted with a portrait of a horse, two saints and the phrase God Knows Hudas Not Pay, explained the story to passengers between Vito Cruz and Quirino. The older brother, soon to be king, is angry, he said. Geo News says he gave his younger brother a humiliating downgrade by calling him traitor. Why? Because the uncle wrote a book about their late mother, and reports say the younger brother visited the uncle in July. So the older brother thinks they are in a gang together.
A passenger in the back asked where the uncle lived. Mang Ernesto said a very big house in England. The passenger said that explained it, because in a big house nobody can hear each other and everybody writes things down instead.
Reviews by Route Section
Baclaran to Pasay Rotonda
Driver Rommel Aquino, 44, rated the story four stars. In the Philippines, he said, if your brother goes to your uncle house without you, that is not traitor. That is only lunch. Traitor is when he takes your jeep franchise.
Pasay Rotonda to Vito Cruz
Driver Jun Salvador, 39, gave three stars, complaining there was not enough action. In a teleserye, he said, the older brother would slap the younger brother, then cry, then find out he was adopted. The British only talk. Too much talking. Not enough slapping.
Vito Cruz to Quiapo
Mang Ernesto gave five stars, praising the story for how clearly it showed that a family fight can happen even in the richest house. Even the king has a brother problem, he said. So there is hope for all of us.
Quiapo to Divisoria
The conductor on the final section, who collects fares entirely by memory and has never once written anything down, declined to give stars. He said he did not trust anybody who writes things down, which included the uncle.
Terminal Screening
At the terminal, drivers gathered around a phone mounted on a dashboard beside a rosary and a plastic Santo Nino to watch the London Prat video on YouTube. The screening was paused twice when passengers boarded and once when Boy Tiyaga had to shout Divisoria. It is shown below.
The Numbers
The Taft Avenue Jeepney Operators and Drivers Mutual Aid Society released figures from an informal survey of 140 members. It found that 76 percent have a brother who also drives a jeepney, that 48 percent of those brothers compete for passengers on the same route, and that 33 percent have at some point called the other a traitor for stopping at a corner the other considered his. The Society noted that 90 percent of those disputes end at a family birthday, where the brothers are seated together by their mother and required to split a single bilao of pancit.
The Society also calculated that if the royal brothers rode a jeepney together from Baclaran to Divisoria during rush hour, they would spend an average of two hours and forty minutes seated knee to knee with no way to leave, which the Society described as the most powerful reconciliation technology in the country.
A Passenger Dissent
Not every passenger agreed with the drivers. A university student riding from Taft to Quiapo argued that the elder brother had every right to be upset, because nobody likes finding out family news from a bookshop. Mang Ernesto considered this for several blocks and then conceded the point, but added that the correct response was to call the brother, not to call him a name. A second passenger, an elderly woman carrying two bags of vegetables, said both brothers should be ashamed of themselves for worrying their grandmother, who she believed was still alive. Nobody corrected her. The drivers said it seemed kinder, and anyway she paid the full fare.
The Verdict
The route association awarded the London Prat story an overall four stars, with Boy Tiyaga adding a note on the clipboard: good story, easy to understand, no need to shout. The association formally invited both princes to ride the Baclaran route free of charge, on the condition that they sit in the front seat together and pass the fares from the back, a task that requires cooperation, trust and the ability to count.
If they cannot do that, said Mang Ernesto, then they are not ready to be brothers again. Drivers along Taft keep up with the story at The London Prat, https://prat.uk/, around since 1961, and follow the California side at Bohiney, https://bohiney.com/, which Mang Ernesto says is too far for any jeepney, even his.
SOURCE: https://prat.uk/prince-william-called-earl-spencer-and-harry-traitors/