“No to Jeepney Phaseout,” says the jeepney drivers, and the citizens as they cry out for the government to hear their plea. However, there are plenty of people who are puzzled with this act, and question the why's of the affected.
Society tends to react to individuals who are determined to become one despite being many, only due to a singular cause, questioning their decisions on why they protest on such a trivial matter. Not everyone understands why there are people who result in a revolt, to act with courage in order to fight for their rights. Indeed, it is questionable why there are people who prefer to act and stand for themselves and the people around them instead of avoiding conflicts and issues. Nonetheless, all that is being perceived regarding this matter is only limited to the premises of a political construct, and have not yet explored other implications regarding such an action.
The Smelser's Structural-Strain Theory is applied in explaining this context, in terms of understanding the jeepney driver's behavior and mindset and how they came to the conclusion of revolting against LTFRB instead of surrendering themselves. Neil Smelser – the author of the Structural-Strain Theory, wrote that social movements occur when several conditions are present. It indicates the idea that the several conditions' involvement results in such a behavior or the social movement primarily. The mass fights through social movements or a revolt and protest as they are driven by reasons, and the structural-strain is one of them.
The immediate loss of their primary income, the huge amount of each modernized jeepney to cover, the elimination of a cultural representation – all of these are the structural-strains or the contemporary societal problems that causes the involved to be angry and frustrated. They turn this frustration towards the government, as well as the LTFRB for lacking the careful deliberation of the project and concern towards the jeepney drivers who will be directly affected by the modernization of the traditional jeepneys through the formulation of generalized beliefs considering that the conditions of the phaseout are bad for them, and bad for the country if executed immediately.
A trending video on Facebook showed the clash between two Jeepney drivers where one of them is frustrated towards the other because he continues to drive his jeepney despite under the premises of their revolt date, while the other responds that he needs to survive. This situation directly explains the frustration both of them have due to the structural-strain.
Individuals do not do revolts for nothing as there will always be a reason behind their actions. May it be for political purposes, or a behavioral explanation, all of it have a cause, have a reason to do so and to fight against the strong, while the weak gather to become one for such drive.
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