>>1237714The 1920s was Meralco’s golden age after the company modernized the system. “The upgrade was so extensive that several foreign observers judged that Meralco had the best streetcar system in Asia, besting even Japan, a country which has a long-running affair with trains,” according to Rodrigo. By 1925, Meralco carried 35 million passengers or 95 times the population of Manila.
The greater mobility brought in a fact of everyday life that Metro Manilans today know all too well: commuting. So was overcrowding — even for a city of 600,000 — as people from the provinces flocked to the city to find work.
The trams were destroyed during the 1945 Battle of Manila, when American forces rooted out Japanese troops occupying the city. Meralco didn’t restore the trams because it was too costly, deciding instead to shift its core business to providing power.
The transportation shortage prompted Filipinos to solve the problem by modifying surplus US Army jeeps to carry passengers — and the jeepneys (coined from the words “jeep” and “jitney”) were born.
“With the death of the tranvia, the buses and jeepneys took over. I guess these were temporary solutions, but the government never did seem to consider more permanent solutions,” says Jose, who recently gave an Ayala Museum lecture about life after the Battle of Manila.
The Philippines had to wait until 1984 for a dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, to erect the country’s first LRT system — Line 1, which runs north to south, from Pasay City to Caloocan City. However, jeepneys still form the backbone of Manila’s public transportation system.
