Last Monday, I hitched a ride on a taxi with some officemates. We did not have our usual service because our “driver” was on sick leave. The taxi driver told us that he almost did not want to take us to our destination, which is Pasig, because he had a bad experience there one afternoon, around 4:00pm. His passenger pointed a knife as long as his elbow at him and took all his hard-earned money. This happened along Mercedes Avenue. When the passenger got off, the driver saw a police car cruise by but he did not report it even if the hold-upper could have been caught because he was afraid that the criminal would take note of his taxi and seek revenge once he gets out of prison. The driver was very pragmatic saying that driving a taxi was his means of living so it would be easy for the hold-upper to track him down in the future if the driver will have him arrested. The driver also said that nowadays, you cannot easily spot a criminal. He told us that the guy who held him up was nicely dressed. Sometimes, these guys could have women allies who will ride the taxi and asked to be dropped off at a certain point wherein the one to do the crime is waiting. There was even one incident wherein a man, a pregnant woman and little boy got into a taxi and then proceeded to rob the driver. Can you believe it? If you were the driver, you wouldn’t suspect that robbing a taxi would be a family enterprise. I guess if there are criminal taxi drivers preying on the passengers, then there are also criminal passengers preying on the drivers. It is really sad that these things are happening in our country. I guess extreme poverty is driving our people to desperate ends.
Passenger Talesstories about my experiences as a traveler and passenger
