'Estudyante ni?'

Most of us who do not own cars probably spend a great deal commuting. I, for one, have been commuting since I was in Grade 3. If I were to do the math, I've been riding a PUJ for well over 12 years now.

Yet how come we know so little about something we spend most of our lives doing? For instance, do we know who is considered student and who is not? Do we know who can avail of fare discounts and who cannot?

One evening, while I was on my way home, I overheard a conversation between a man and a woman. Was I so privy that I heard them talking? Or was it because they talked so loud? Or both?

Anyway, the man, who was wearing a red shirt and has a receding hair line, had just paid his fare.

"Estudyante ni?" the driver asked.

Apparently, the man in red didn't hear the driver, so he asked the woman beside her, "Unsa daw?"

"Estudyante ba daw?" replied the woman, who wore a pink shirt and wore her hair in a pony tail.

"Titser siguro na," someone quipped when the man in red was having trouble answering the question.

"Dili nong, regular na," the man said at last.

He then turned to the woman in pink and said, "Katanduon unta ko ba." But, he added, "estudyante man pud nang second courser, di ba?"

The woman merely grinned, then said, "Pero tiguwang na man gud tanawon. Naa na pu'y trabaho."

I agree with the man that a second courser is still a student. He is not, however, entitled anymore to a fare discount that the regular students enjoyed.

In a Memorandum Circular No. 2005 - 014 the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) released, the LTFRB said:

The Board issued Memorandum Circular No. 2003-033, dated December 15, 2003, providing the Guideliness for Student Fare Discounts. In addition to the provisions thereof, specifically item II USE / AVAILMENT, the Board hereby includes as second paragraph of said item, to read as follows:

"Students can only avail of the twenty percent (20%) discount during the school year from Mondays to Fridays. Said discount cannot be availed of on Saturdays and Sundays, legal and special legal holidays, Christmas and summer breaks. Post-graduate students (those taking up medicine, law, masteral, doctoral degrees and the like) cannot avail of said fare discount."

The only passage that I do not agree with in this provision is this: "Said discount cannot be availed on Saturdays and Sundays, legal and special legal holidays, Christmas and summer breaks."

Haven't they gone to school, have they?

I suspect when they (or whoever it is) were writing this provision, they had in mind only the high school students. High school students, as we know, do not have classes on Saturdays and Sundays and on summer breaks. Unless, of course, they flunked their Algebra or Chemistry and they needed to attend summer class.

That passage, however, ignores the realities: That high school students are not the only students who are commuting; that there are also college students; and that college students have classes on Saturdays and Sundays and on summer breaks.

Surely the little amount drivers could be had from an undiscounted fare, would help augment their already meager income. On average, a driver earns P750 after plying the on street the whole day. Of the P750, P400 will go the operator of the PUJ if the driver doesn't the PUJ himself. Therefore he will bring home a measly P350, which will be allocated for fare, meal, and other commodities.

I know whereof I speak because my father is a driver. But I still hope that the LTFRB will reconsider giving discounts to students even on Saturdays and Sundays and on summer breaks.