After arriving in Camachile, Quezon City, from a long trip from northern Luzon last night, Thomas Pane and his companions needed to get home to Malabon. Luckily for him, there were plenty of taxi drivers around. Unluckily for him, they were the type that become enraged and threaten you if you ask them to use the meter.
Pane approached a taxi driver parked in front of a police station and asked to be brought to Malabon, but the driver said he would be charging a fixed amount and refused to use the meter which, newsflash, is prescribed by law.
“[The taxi driver] tried to ask us for PHP350 (US$7) and we said no,” Pane said in his Facebook post.
In a follow-up interview with Coconuts via Facebook messenger, he said that he and his companions asked how much the fare would be if they got dropped off a nearer location in Tondo, Manila. The driver said that they would still need to pay PHP250 (US$5).
Pane then told the taxi driver and barker that he would find a Grab vehicle instead.
While waiting for the Grab, Pane said they attempted to flag down another taxi that would agree to take them home using the meter. They found one, but other taxi drivers and barkers in the area were not happy about it.
“Fuck you! You’re so bent on getting Grab but you end up getting in a cab,” one of the barkers can be heard shouting at Pane and his two female companions in this video posted on Facebook.
What was not caught on video is that while Pane was boarding the taxi, he was allegedly kicked in the back.
“I wanted to hit him back, but I was stopped,” Pane told Coconuts Manila.
And while the taxi began to drive off, the other drivers allegedly kicked the back of the taxi several times.
“The worst part of it is, we thought it would be safe to get out here because it was in front of a police station,” he said. “I was wrong.”
While Pane didn’t report the incident to the police, he reported it to the Land Transportation Regulatory and Franchising Board (LTFRB). He complained, however, that the process of filing a complaint was tedious.
“I was given a four-page document to fill out and was told that they wouldn’t call a hearing on the incident for another 15 to 20 days,” he told Coconuts.
“How many more people could be victimized by these guys in 15 to 20 days?” he said.
Coconuts got in touch with LTFRB board member Aileen Lizada and is waiting for a statement on the incident from the board member.
*All quotes translated from Filipino
