No Si, Anti-Smoking Commuting

It used to be almost everyday that I commute to go to school, then work, and other places.  I averaged 2 legs of jeepneys and buses and I almost never rode FX or taxi because I strangely felt they're less safe.  One of the biggest annoyance I had with commuting then was the smoke -- not the carbon monoxide exhaust of inefficient jeeps and buses (which is terrible, but unavoidable) but the 2nd hand smoke I got to breathe from passenger and driver smokers.

Smoking was bad enough in bars and restaurants and other places, but there I always had the freedom to walk away and escape (which I almost always exercised), but in jeeps, having had to go down the jeep the moment the driver or a passenger lighted a cigarette in the middle of a ride was prohibitively expensive and impractical.  I had little way of protesting except to get as far away from bad-smelling breaths and carcinogens and cover my nose and mouth with my sleeves -- I almost never brought handkerchiefs -- to show my silent annoyances.

What I did then was before I got on a ride, I checked if the driver was smoking or not.  I would not ride a jeepney whose driver I knew beforehand as a smoker.  There was a time I even tried taking down on my notebook the plate numbers I'd found to be "offenders".  Nevertheless, this didn't really pan out well.  Drivers often started the smoking session well into the ride.  I'd given up on much and just went back to covering myself with little defense my shirt afforded.

So it was much a welcome surprise to me that there seemed to be fairly recent changes regarding this annoyance of mine.  I wouldn't know how recent as I rarely heard news about what our estranged government had been doing.  No Si - a play on Yosi, which itself is a play on Si-garil-yo.  Actually I wasn't sure even if I heard things right.  No more smoking on public transportation including jeeps and taxis?  Is it too good to be true?  Well, with how much jeepneys get away with so much, it feels indeed too good to be expected.  But still, it's a welcome start.