If you search the Internet for word on which best place to go to, you’re told that Cebu is it. Unlike in Manila, Cebu taxi drivers give you back your change and say Thanks when you tell them to keep it.

A friend, who came to Cebu for a visit during a short vacation in the country, took a cab from the airport and engaged the driver in conversation. The driver was certainly up to it, seeing her as a visitor but who used to come for fun visits between school days. He talked about new things in Cebu, even about Cebu politics.

The first thing our New Yorker friend said when she arrived at the house and got off the cab was: “Gosh, I’ve forgotten how nice people are in this country!”

She had the cab driver in mind, as example of our national charm!

Cab drivers are interesting people who become part of your day. Two or more own the car they drive, like one law student who drove in the day and went to evening classes

A cab driver talked to me about Rizal and the Spaniards in the 1800s; still another about the ozone layer disappearing and the mess the world environment is in. “That’s why I’m using LPG,” he said.

Before the taxicabs in Cebu, people used jeepneys. The jeepney route in quiet Cebu used to be flexible since traffic wasn’t very busy, jeepneys took you to your doorstep! When routes were fixed for jeepneys, there were those who preferred the cabs which then were the minicab type.

Unlike the jeepney, the taxicab is flexible, a form of “paratransit” or a transport that can go anywhere, which also comes in handy, on short notice—one you can call for or hail from the roadside.

In Cebu then, they were not airconditioned but it wasn’t very hot, either.

Historically in the early years, the electric-powered taxicabs were available only in the US and Europe. Before this, they had the horse-drawn coaches for hire. We had the tartanilla, but that was decades after the Western countries first had horse-powered coaches.

It was at the time of the coaches in Europe that the “cab” got its name—from cabriolet, “a two-wheeled, one-horse coach” used for hire. The ride was sort of jarring as the horse jogged and “cabriolet” was the right French term for it because the word means “caper”, the best way to describe the motion in the ride. The word “taxi” comes from “taximeter”.

I bet you can’t imagine how many taxicabs are in the city now. There should be about 10,000 taxicabs, said the cab driver I took this morning. Of course, all these can’t be out in the streets at the same time. But they’re out in big enough numbers to join the jeepneys so that you get the messy traffic you keep complaining about.

We asked someone to write down all the names of taxicabs that passed Don Pedro Cui st. in an hour. He said he got to record them “pasigpat-sigpat lang” (at quick glances) since he was doing something else. In that given time, he was able to put down almost 200 names of taxicabs.

The names are characteristic of Cebuanos—intimate (if not familial, such as Pangging taxi), and mostly media-oriented (like Hero taxi), also romantic (such as Love taxi or Twin Heart taxi).

Many of the cabs have women’s names—Helen taxi, Gilda taxi, Wella taxi. Marivic taxi would be homey, Alona or Sheena taxi are “in” names, like movie stars. Like a prayer, you have Angel Mary taxi, or St. Claire taxi.

And if you talk of speed, you have the Road runner taxi which presumably shoots off!