In the Philippines, we have public terminals for all types of public transportation, like the buses, dyipnis, traysikels, and even pedicabs (bicycles with a passenger cart attached to it). Some may be legal while others may be illegal and are protected by the law enforcers themselves.
In terminals such as those mentioned, you will find a person calling for passengers. Filipinos call him “The Barker”. He shouts out the destination of the public transport and encourages the passengers to ride the public transport of which the driver pays him between Php10 to 20 (about US$23c to 46c) depending on the destination. In a good day, the Barker can earn about Php200… But since there are as many barkers as the number of public transports, they average about a hundred pesos a day or even lesser in a bad day.
This boy will earn Php10 for his “barking” job with the dyipni behind him. And it may take him about 15 minutes to have the dyipni full of passengers. Half of what he earn may have to go to the traffic enforcer “protecting” the terminal.
That’s life in the Philippines…!
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