Monday, June 21, 2010

The Taxis of Cebu (The Day I Renewed My NBI Clearance)

Someone's NBI Clearance
I was in Robinson’s Place Cebu earlier to renew my NBI clearance. I arrived at around 12 PM and the NBI office opens at 1 PM. The office of the National Bureau of Investigations is located in the 4th floor of the mall. To decongest the mall from a large number people—off to renew their clearances—the guards made us wait by the main entrance. We were each given a priority number. Me, I was number 68.

While waiting for our numbers to be called, we were all seated in the stairs by the entrance. We looked like we were about to get our class picture taken. We did have our picture taken thanks to an American guy—probably a tourist—he was carrying around a DSLR camera.  He was on his way inside the mall when he took our picture.

At around 1 PM, the first 50 people was let in to the mall. We had to wait another hour to be accommodated. Everyone was not impatient since they came in groups or in pairs. A guy came with her girlfriend. A husband came with his wife and kids. There was a group of boisterous men. Everyone had someone to talk to kill the time except me. I came alone. I did bump into a previous officemate but she came with her girl friends and she was seated 5 people away from me. I was the quiet the whole time.

Sitting on the stairs and facing the street, I noticed the names of the taxis that passed by.

In Cebu, most taxis have acronyms for a name. Some have human names—probably the names of their owners or someone close to the owners. There’s a taxi named Richielda as well as Christoff and Ann & Benjie. Some were named after animals—Duck, Spider and Tiger—another one was named after the king of spiders. One can ride Atlas—I wonder if it was named after the Titan. Twin Hearts is named after a Filipino TV series. Some cabs guarantee you a Softride, a Safeway and a Cool Transport. 

Then crazy idea struck. 'Why don’t I take down the franchise names of the taxis?,' I told my self. I took note of the names mentally. I wanted to write them down but I didn’t want the ones seated beside and behind me to be able to read my list. I also didn’t want to be called crazy by those people. I was able to note quite a number of names.

When I got home after I renewed my clearance, I was able to list these names:

2B
Airland
Ann & Benjie
Artville
Atlas
Caraga
Catz
Christoff
Cool Transport
Crew
CTC
Duck
EC Friends
Friendly
Gilgal
Good Shepherd
Hadjie
Highland
HMJJ
Holiday
HR
Janox-1
Juscar
K Factor
Kein Cedric
Ken
King Spider
M&J
Mabuhay
Maligaya
MARMIC
MEG
Micaela
MMS
N
PPTC
R&F
RC
RD
SAMC
Regional
Reingold
Revolution
Richielda
Riya
RosaMC
RP
RP Corominas
Safeway
Sansei
Saregen
Scorpion
SD
Shurie
Softride
Spider
Sweet Baby
Thessie
Tiger
Tres Nina
Twin Hearts
Van System
VUDTRASCO
Zarlene
Zirk

2 comments:

  1. hi do you have a contact number to christoff taxi? i left something in one of its taxis thanks

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  2. SAMC, ROSAMC, SOFTRIDE Taxis are in Casili, Mandaue City owned by CEBU SOFTRIDE TRANSPORT CORP. SHURIE, SANSEI, ZARLENE are located in Jagobiao, Mandaue City owned by Simplicio Tariman RIYA Taxi is locaed in Pilit, Cabancalan owned by Riya Lumapas. THESSIE Taxi is owned by Teresa Ybañez of Canduman, Mandaue City ZIRK Taxi is owned by Simon Lee of Pilit, Cabancalan HR JANOX-1 Taxis is owned by Herminio Rivera of Tipolo, Mandaue City Kein Cedric Taxi is owned by Raymond Lee of Pilit, Cabancalan RC & RD Taxi are owned by Rosalio Casquejo and Roberto Degamo of Cordova, Cebu VAN SYSTEM Taxi is owned by Vicente Santiago of Looc, Mandaue City HMJJ Taxi is owned by Herman Jimenez of Paknaan, Mandaue City MABUHAY and MALIGAYA Taxis are owned by CEBU MABUHAY TRANSPORT CORP. located in Umapad, Mandaue City ARTVILLE Taxi is owned by Arturo Villagonzalo of Manipis, Talisay City and TWIN HEARTS Taxi is owned by Tiburcio Haranella of Subangdaku, Mandaue City

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