Unscrupulous Taxi Drivers

I had another encounter with an unscrupulous taxi driver just yesterday while me and my friends headed to a comedy bar in Quezon City. I'm pretty sure most people have their share of bad experiences with them too.

We hailed a taxi along the intersection of East Avenue - Edsa and before we hopped in, I told the driver our destination. He responded saying "Sa Laffline sa Timog?" to clarify. I replied in confirmation by saying "Opo" and the four of us got in thinking he knows where to take us. There are two ways on how he can get to Laffline, he can go straight ahead to Timog where GMA is located or he can take Kamuning road via Edsa. Since the red light was on on the way to Timog, he veered to the left and took Edsa. Presuming that he would take the other route, I closed my eyes and took the moment to take a nap and relaxed.

The driver should turn right from Edsa once we reach the Edsa-Kumuning intersection. Since I didn't feel any motion of turning, I opened by eyes and to my surprise, we are already past Kamuning. I blurted out "Kuya diba sa Timog tayo, bat di ka lumiko sa kanan?" The driver retorted sarcastically by saying "Bat di mo sinabi?" (It's as if it was my fault) The cool that I am, I ignored his sardonic reply and just said "Okay, mag u-turn na lang tayo sa may Cubao". He uttered "San yun?". Hearing those words sent volts of anger to my brain and I became belligerent. I ranted at him. "Di niyo ba alam yong way or niloloko mo lang kami?!! Kanina sinabi niyo di ko sinabi kung saan kami papunta. Anong di sinabi, sinabi ko yon bago kami sumakay. Kung di mo alam yong way, sana sinabi mo na lang sa simula ng mabigyan ko kayo ng direction at ikaw pa tong galit." He continued on running his car. I asked him to stop. We got off the taxi, paid him nothing and slammed the door. This driver's style of shenanigan was so lame. It's conspicuous that he was just pretending that he wasn't familiar with the place.

That was not the only bad experience I had with a "mandurugas at gagong" taxi driver. The very first encounter I had was 2 years ago. I was already late for my first day of training that time. Since I was new to the place, I took a cab and told the driver the address that I obviously read from a piece of paper. He must have come to realize that I was not familiar with the place so the crooked taxi driver took advantage of my innocence by driving me in circles around Ortigas Center before he sent me to my destination. I ended up paying 80 pesos. Few days thereafter, I realized that our office was just few walks away from where I hailed him. The cost would have been only around 30-40 pesos.

Another one happened at Landmark in Makati City. After a friend of mine was done with her shopping, we went outside the mall and looked for a taxi. Since we are desperately in need for one as we have to run some important errands, we did not bother to fall in line at the taxi stand. We saw a taxi parked not so far away from where we were standing and we approached it. I told the driver our destination, he nodded and we got in. The driver fired up the engine and the taxi moved. However, he didn't turn on the meter. I told him "Kuya paki on naman ng metro". "Ay hindi kami gumagamit ng metro", he retorted. It was okay with me as long as we can get to our destination on time. "Magkano po ba singil ninyo?", I asked. "150 pesos", he answered. I was taken aback with what he said that I immediately told him to stop the car and whined, "ang lapit lang nun, tapos 150 pesos yong singil niyo. 50 pesos lang kaya ang bayad namin dun. Itigil mo bulok na taxi mo at bababa kami". We got off and to retaliate, we left the door open and ran away giggling. This driver was asking exorbitantly.

These unscrupulous taxi drivers need to be punished in whatever way possible. They may have swindled just a small amout of money but still they are cheating and their deception is utterly vile. They are no different to corrupt politicians. I may sound harsh and cruel but I always wish that these wicked and greedy predators will end up being robbed by their passengers or worse catch an accident while they are travelling on their taxi alone looking for another prey.