Duterte's modernisation move will phase out traditional jeepneys

Manila

IN Alvin Ocampo's 18-year-old jeepney, the dashboard is held together with yards of peeling electrical tape. The only concession to Manila's stifling heat is a fan screwed to the ceiling. And unless you count the padlocked metal grate in place of the driver's-side door that Mr Ocampo installed after a gang of glue-sniffing teenagers robbed him of a fistful of pesos, the vehicle has no safety features to speak of.

Nevertheless, on a recent Friday afternoon in December, scores of passengers climbed aboard his jeepney, one of thousands of locally produced passenger trucks that are icons of Manila's traffic-clogged and pollution-choked streets.

Sitting knee-to-knee, 20 passengers squeezed along the vinyl benches that run the length of the vehicle. Women clutched purses on their laps, and a few riders held handkerchiefs over their noses to keep from breathing th…