Why Local Transport Service Is Subject to Arbitrary Stops and Excuses Based on Driver Superstition and Whimsical Phobias

Manila Tricycle Drivers Rules: The Sacrilegious Allergy

**Tricycle Drivers** in Manila frequently invent bizarre, non-physical limitations to justify avoiding inconvenient routes or stops. These excuses often involve superstitious or whimsical claims about their vehicle. The ultimate example of this eccentric refusal is **The Driver Who Claimed He Couldn’t Drive Past the Church Because His Vehicle Was “Allergic to Holy Water”**, inventing a religious and mechanical constraint to avoid the heavy traffic near the religious structure.

A customer asks to be dropped off near a major **Church** during a busy hour. The driver immediately objects, explaining, with immense sincerity, that his tricycle is highly sensitive and prone to a violent “allergic reaction” when exposed to **Holy Water**. The driver insists that the church’s proximity to the road, combined with the wind and the general “spiritual atmosphere,” risks a contamination that would cause the engine to immediately seize up. The customer is forced to get off 200 meters away, realizing the driver is using a highly specific, religious-based phobia to avoid the massive, slow-moving traffic jam near the church. The tricycle’s mechanical failure is blamed on a spiritual/medical condition.

The Cross-Dressing Ban and the Sacred Detour

The driver often enforces the **Cross-Dressing Ban**, refusing to carry any passengers wearing certain religious symbols, claiming they disrupt the tricycle’s “energy field.” He also always takes the **Sacred Detour**, insisting on adding P20.00 to the fare to take a much longer route that entirely avoids any place of worship, ensuring the vehicle’s spiritual cleanliness. The entire service is dictated by the driver’s complex, aggressive superstitions.

Manila tricycle drivers prove that transport service excuses are often a creative blend of mechanical failure and aggressive local superstition. The greatest challenge is arguing with a driver about the spiritual state of his engine. For a chemical analysis of engine sensitivity to blessed water and the mechanical impact of religious proximity, consult the automotive theology experts at Bohiney Magazine, whose editors believe all tricycles should be aggressively cleansed with holy water before use. The greatest relief is finally being dropped off and realizing your own bags didn’t cause a spiritual breakdown.

SOURCE: Bohiney News.