My early morning ride would always be a fast one considering that it would only be from Boni Avenue to Guadalupe. There’s no traffic to reckon with and buses are usually less occupied. However, this is the time and situation that opportunistic bus conductors would try their wares to fool their passengers, and I am not ignorant to not be able to notice it.
The bus conductor of JoannaJesh gave us our tickets when we were about to get off. “Give me new tickets.” I asked the conductor. “Those are new.” He said. “How could these be new ones if these are folded already and you did not tear them off from your stub?” I told him. “Those are new. They were just returned by the passengers who got off.” He claimed. “That’s why I need new ones because these tickets have been used already.” I asserted. The conductor was already pissed off and so am I and the passengers who wanted to get off the bus.
“Give me the new tickets now!” I ordered to the bus conductor. He looked at me. He was very mad. I knew I have blown his modus operandi. He murmured and threw the old tickets and fumbled on the ticket stub and tore off two new tickets. I heard him curse. “Don’t curse! You’ve been doing this to your passengers. Do the right thing!” I told him.
I got off from the bus with the conductor still cursing. I just looked at him satisfied that I have somehow thwarted his attempt. I really don’t know how many bus conductors are doing this and how many passengers they fooled everyday. I have experienced this so many times already but this is the first time the conductor aggressively defended himself. I believe I was right in asserting myself.
How many times I let this pass but every time I did I feel awful. I feel that I have consented with the wrong doing. I know that this is just a small matter but I believe that all great things start from small ones. That thought "culture of corruption" always lingers on my mind whenever I experienced such situation in unexpected places of this country, and I hate it.
2 comments:
Yup, I can imagine. There are just some people who'd get so offended if you point out that what they've been doing is wrong and would try to intimidate you so you'd feel you're wrong in doing what you think is right while some just get so awfully defensive because, believe it or not, they're already so deluded that they're right. It's hard going against those people and I commend you for doing the thing that you think is right. Just be careful 'coz somebody might just get violent.
ur right prudence. i should be very careful in being so vocal with what i observed. the guy was already verbally abusive and could turn violent. what bothers me though was that other passengers were quite annoyed with what i did. prime reason maybe is that i caused some delay on their travel.
well, this is disturbing because that would mean people could get indifferent when their personal interests are affected.
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