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Celebrating jeepney history at the Jeepney Arts Festival


One of the redesigned jeeps parked at the festival.
One jeepney lacks the traditional rearing stallion on its hood. In its place, a sarimanok made of spoons is caught in the middle of a proud strut on the hood of the PUV. On other jeepneys, the ornament may look out of place, but on the winner of last year's Jeepney Painting Contest, it looks like an art exhibit on wheels.

On Thursday, Nov. 7, Jeepney Trust launched a series of events to celebrate the Filipino street icon at the UPL Building at Fort Santiago, Intramuros. Creating more of these museums-on-wheels is one of the Jeepney Arts Festival's (JAF) goal for this year's bash.

The year-long celebration was planned with this goal in mind: to “revive the dying jeepney arts.”

“For me, the Philippine jeepney encapsulates the Filipino spirit of resiliency, ingenuity, artistry, and entrepreneurship. The jeepneys is the story of the Filipino people, so it has to keep up with the times. Hindi siya pwedeng stagnant,” said Clang Garcia, Managing Director of Jeepney Tours.

Tourist attraction

Though the entire festival was contained within the Manila area, folks from all parts of the country were encouraged to join in the festivities. Locals, and even foreigners, were invited to help paint the jeepneys, join the parade, and jam at the arts and music festival that will top off the painting contest.

On the hood: a sarimanok made of spoons. >Caguioa & Gatmaytan website.
Island Souvenirs, (IS) the origin of the Islands Group, sponsored the tourism group and the Jeepney Shirt Painting Contest, the first leg of the festivities.

“We're very interested in partnering with Clang because we share the same vision of preserving and promoting the best that the Philippines has to offer,” said Camille Aldeguer, co-owner and executive vice president of IS.

The top three designs from the contest, which took off on Thursday, will sit on IS outlet shelves and bring their designers a neat cash prize.

A theme Garcia and Aldeguer constantly brought up was the potential of the jeepney as a draw for foreigners. However, Anna Maris Igpit, Bb. Pilipinas World 2006 and event host, put it most succinctly when she pointed out that foreigners should not be the only target of this attempt at refreshing history.

“It would be of great help that the Filipinos themselves and the locals would help contribute in the tourism by patronizing our own local products, and letting the world know how beautiful our country is,” she said.

Redesigning jeeps, rehabilitating drivers

Volunteers repaint the jeeps as the drivers attend seminars on road safety.
The festival's feature event, the Jeepney Painting Contest, will once again feature jeepney designs by 50 new artists. Except this year, entries were to be screened before the event from January to March 2014. Once adorned by the artists, these jeepneys will go back to their thoroughfares—hopefully, with reformed drivers to go with the new paint.

“During the Jeepney Arts Festival, kapag pinipinturahan yung jeepney, yung mga drivers, pinapa-train namin 'yan, so they're part of the rehabilitation program. They're given basic training by the Department of Tourism on values formation, road safety, ethics, and all that,” said Garcia.

Since their automobile canvases have contours a flat easel can't compare to, the director said artists were challenged to work with a high level of precision and care.

Part of the PAF's efforts to keep the jeepney from stagnation is a Green Jeepney Innovation Contest called “What is Your Green Idea?” It is open to engineering students from around the country, with the goal of producing a green designer jeepney for the tourist industry. Such a jeep can travel within a 100km radius and seat 20 people.

It's all up to the students to produce their own prototypes within the generous one year deadline given them by the organizers. Judges will ride these prototypes around tourist attractions within a 100km radius and winning designs will net their creators a cash prize of P300,000.

Winning prototypes might even be purchased by Jeepney Tours, who will add it to their fleet of custom-built, air-conditioned tour jeepneys.

“When people come here, they always look for a local experience, and one of them is the jeepney ride experience. We want to be able to give them that, but we want to show them that we're innovating—that we're going towards the green direction,” said Garcia. — VC, GMA News