Reading and Writing Skills

Activity 4

NAME: __________________________________________Strand & Section: ________Date: ______Score: ______

JUDGE ME!
Direction. Read the text and assess it based on its properties (organization, coherence, cohesion, language use, and
mechanics). Explain the reason for your rating on each property.

Phase Out the Obsolete Jeepney (an excerpt)

By: Neal H. Cruz
If the jeepney strike pushes through today, the government should use it to phase out the jeepneys. This World
War
II relic should have been phased out a long time ago but successive administrations had no balls to go through with the
phase out. They were afraid of the jeepney drivers who always threatened a strike when they were told to obey the law.
And there were not enough buses to replace the jeepneys to service commuters.
But the jeepney, although a tourist attraction and a romantic example of folk art, is the principal source of the
daily traffic jams. Its drivers are undisciplined, reckless and probably don’t know half of the traffic rules. Because of the
huge number of vehicles in Metro Manila, there is only one way to improve traffic: make each and every driver, private
and public, obey each and every traffic rule. Jeepney drivers have gotten away for so long with murder by bribing corrupt
policemen that it is a shock to them to be made to obey traffic rules and be fined if they violate them. Anarchy reigns in
the streets because of them.
Although they are not in the driver’s seat, jeepney operators are also to blame for the anarchy. They make the
drivers pay a flat rental (the boundary) for the jeepney. Whatever the driver earns in excess of the boundary, plus the cost
of fuel and oil-and bribes- is his take home pay. So the driver is forced to break traffic rules so that he can earn as much as
he can. But that is no excuse.
Perhaps if the operator pays his driver a regular salary, plus social security and mediocre premiums, and fixed
times for trips, the driver would be less reckless and we would have more orderly traffic.
As for the jeepney terminals, they really are a source of traffic congestion. Try this: whenever you come to a
traffic jam, trace the source and in may cases it would be a jeepney terminal. Jeepneys lined up along narrow street take
up space intended for moving vehicles. Some jeepney routes are too short, which means more terminal- and bigger fares
for passengers.
Another reason why the jeepney should be phased out is that it takes up too much road space and consumes more
fuel for the number of passengers it can accommodate. One bus can take in passengers of ten jeepneys but take up only a
fourth of the space occupied by the 10 jeepneys. In short, the jeepney is all right in the provinces where there is ample
road space but not in a crowded metropolis like Metro Manila. It was a great as emergency civilian transportation during
the Liberation days, but not anymore. Alas, it has become obsolete in the city.
The phase out doesn’t mean throwing the jeepneys into the junk heap and their drivers into the ranks of the
jobless. There is a great need for the jeepney in many areas of the Philippines where there is a shortage of transportation.
Send them there. Where will the commuters ride without the jeepneys? Send in more buses with salaried drivers and
conductors and fixed trip schedules so they don’t have to clog loading//unloading zones waiting for passengers. Organize
the bus companies in Metro Manila into one super-consortium so that the bus ticket of one company can be used to
transfer to another bus of a different company. This is to prevent passengers and buses clogging bus stops because they
are waiting for the bus going exactly to where they are going. If transfers are allowed, they can board any bus going in the
same direction (and the bus doesn’t have to wait long for passsengers) and then transfer to another bus at their
convenience. Encourage commuters to use the Metrotren by improving the coaches and having more trips.
Use the Pasig River. The Metro Ferry failed because there were not enough passengers mainly because the boats
are small. Hongkong type shallow-drift ferries will certainly attract more passengers. Use the smaller boats during high
tide to be able to pass under the bridges. Have another ferry service to Cavite City to relieve traffic on Coastal Road.
(There used to be one; why was it discontinued?)
And hurry up with the C-5 and the C-6…
Criteria: (5 as the highest and 1 as the lowest)
Organization (Rating: ____)
Explanation of Assessment:
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Coherence (Rating: ____)
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Cohesion (Rating: ____)
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Language Use (Rating: ____)
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Mechanics (Rating: ____)