Alongside jeepney stations can you see small gambling stations, jueteng. When you stand by these small stations, the customers are usually the small folk. The grocery worker nearby, the jeepney operator, the cashier, etc. One by one they say a number, give some cash, and they move on, presumably back to work.
Gambling, is an alternative to so many people. Now that oil prices are up, jeepney drivers look for other ways to somehow provide for their families. This leaves them vulnerable to a more permanent financial ruin. But perhaps this is the way some people want it to be. As a way to keep people down and desperate.
As pressure mounts for people to provide for their families, the rewards of gambling gets very tempting. What else to expect when the system has no other way to uplift its citizens. When gambling itself is simply a business for the powerful. They were even allowed to parade down Session Road during Panagbenga.
Again, so many more will be forced to repeat the cycle of poverty, with not the least bit of effort from their own government to stop them and show them a better way.
As more and more gas stations close in the region, the less and less opportunities do drivers have to provide and survive.
But the cash will still flow. And so long as that remains, the powerful will be content enough. **