There is perhaps no better symbol of the Philippines than the iconic jeepney. Having ruled the streets of Manila since the end of the Second World War, even in the most remote locations of the countryside you will find these dependable workhorses trotting along no matter what kind of terrain it may come across, earning it the appropriate name; the “King of the Road”.
Prior to the war, the Philippine capital city of Manila was among the most developed and modern in Asia, partly in thanks to controversial American colonial rule which had placed the country under a Commonwealth government in the 1930’s. Some sources described the city as the “Paris of the East”, “Queen of the Pacific”, and “The Pearl of the Orient”, with an extensive public transportation system filled with tranvias, calesas and various forms of transportation allowing people to easily get from one end of the bustling city to another.
The most notable of these transit methods was the jitney, a form of low-cost rideshare transportation that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression that was eventually carried over to the Philippines. This would be where the jeepney would get its start, and where its now iconic seating layout would first emerge.
In 1941, war had broken out in the Pacific. It didn’t take long for the Japanese Empire to capture the Philippine islands and its capital of Manila, which was declared an open city in an attempt to preserve its cultural heritage. Four years later, when the Americans finally returned to retake the country, the Japanese decided that they wouldn’t let the Philippines go without one last fight for whatever washed out glory they perceived about their crumbling empire.
The Americans, not to be outdone, planned to take back the islands no matter what. Even at the cost of why they let Manila go so easily in the first place.
In the end, Manila was among the most destroyed cities in the world. With millions dead or missing from the liberation of the city by the Americans from the Japanese, hundreds of years of architecture, urban planning, and economic growth would be almost entirely wiped out. The Philippines would get their independence, but instead of a shining star of economic growth and technological wonder in the East that the Filipinos were promised by the Americans in the 1930’s, they were instead left with a war torn country littered with the shattered, gloomy remains of “what could have been”.
The country, almost entirely devastated by Japanese scorched earth campaigns and American bombs, began to rebuild itself anew, electing a new president and using whatever scraps of “reparations” in the form of loans that the Americans threw at them post-independence.
It was no use sitting idly awaiting reparations from the United Nations or Japan that would never come, however. There were thousands of surplus military jeeps left behind by the United States at the end of the war. Almost immediately, in the midst of the disposal of this leftover American equipment, some Filipinos would get the country on wheels again with the purchase of the small, dependable half-ton runabouts.
The surplus jeeps would be stripped of unnecessary equipment, and equipped with steps, roofs, and inside-facing bench seats for passengers. They would then ply specific routes down the battered streets of Manila, much like the pre-war jitneys that emerged in America during the Great Depression. With more people recognizing their dependability and potential to stir economic growth, the replacement for the destroyed tranvia lines would thus come in the form of the newly developed jeepney.
John Tewell, CC BY-NC 2.0
Early on, they still very much resembled normal surplus military trucks, just with roofs and seats added to make trips around the destroyed city a bit more bearable. Pretty quickly, however, they began to be lengthened to accommodate more passengers, and be equipped with various ornaments and decorations.
The demand for an increase in public transportation in the country and lack of any reparations from foreign countries after the war meant that jeepneys, being the most economical way to get around due to their low fares, easy serviceability, relative ubiquity and ease of manufacture guaranteed their spot in the infrastructure of the nation. The Philippine government eventually realized their potential, and nationalized their service and regulated their use.
John Tewell, CC BY-NC 2.0
As the greater Manila area continued to grow, so did the demand for jeepneys. Local manufacturers of jeepneys with custom larger frames and bodies would also begin to pop up by the turn of the decade. They began to not just be built in greater volumes, but greater sizes too. While the average jeepney throughout the 40’s to the 60’s could hold about 6-8 passengers, by the 70’s this number grew to 10-12, doubling in the 80’s to be able to hold nearly 20 people.
Their powerplants changed over the years too. With largely no industrial capability, most jeepney manufacturers of the 40’s and 50’s used the same engines as the military trucks that the vehicles were based off of. With the supply of these engines dwindling in the 60’s, some jeepney manufacturers began to experiment with imported German diesel engines, before a majority settled on Japanese light truck diesels from Suisei or Izumi.
John Tewell, CC BY-NC 2.0
Decoration and styling became prominent elements of the jeepney. As the decades progressed, so did the designs of the jeepneys. Early on, many jeepneys took after the ponton design cues that persisted into the 1950’s, featuring bubbly, round looks that resembled typical American and European passenger cars of the era, and riding on shiny chrome hubcaps with glistening whitewalls. Space and jet age design cues also became popular as the 60’s came around.
The paintwork of the jeepneys in the 60’s and early 70’s were influenced largely by the colorful baroque styles introduced by the Spanish many years ago, bearing a resemblance to the Hispanic designs like those seen on West Coast American lowriders of the era. Though with the economic downturn in the late 70’s and early 80’s due to the failures of the Marcos dictatorship, the style of painting the whole jeep became less popular, with painted highlights on predominantly plain polished stainless steel bodies becoming more common.
Another prominent design feature were ornamental horses that stemmed from the calesas widely used throughout the Philippines, which were the dominant form of transportation in the islands prior to the introduction of tranvias and automobiles. These sorts of ornaments became more popular into the 60’s and 70’s.
historygirlie, CC BY-NC 2.0
One of the more striking decorations on jeepneys are the large swinging, mostly decorative antennas mounted throughout the front of the vehicles. Ultimately, what all of these did were attract more passengers to ride on jeepneys. Compared to a more plain and typical minibus painted in corporate company colors, the jeepneys with their bright, intricate designs and playful ornaments were arguably more pleasing and enjoyable to look at. The antennas appearing as sort of arms swinging around in the air waving to potential passengers and more or less saying “come aboard!” and in heavy traffic, allowed people to see in the distance that a jeepney was coming their way to pick them up and bring them to their destination.
The jeepneys became so iconic, at every World’s Fair that featured the Philippines, at least one jeepney would be present, such as in 1964 in New York and in 1982 in Knoxville. In 1971, a group of jeepneys embarked on a journey from Manila to London to promote tourism to the Philippines in a publicity stunt known as the London-Manila express, further cementing its legacy among Asian cultures.
Eric Huybrechts, CC BY-ND 2.0
By the 70’s and 80’s, there was simply no corner of the Philippines that was not populated by at least one jeepney. In 1986, there were an estimated 50,000 jeepneys operating in Manila alone. The vehicle that emerged from the devastation and heartlessness of the war eventually became one of national pride. In Manila and more developed provincial cities, air conditioned buses, taxis, and a new light rail transit systems were introduced, yet the jeepneys continued hustling and bustling.
In even the most remote regions of the country where road infrastructure barely existed, the rugged, archaic but dependable designs of the jeepneys allowed them to haul passengers and cargo where needed, and ultimately form the backbone of the country’s economy.
Lon&Queta, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Even with an attempt to coerce foreign manufacturers into developing locally-manufactured and designed Asian Basic Utility Vehicles with the Progressive Car Manufacturing Program in 1973, the jeepneys remained the one true symbol of the Philippine automotive industry, the ultimate king of Filipino roads, for better or for worse.
In 1957, a former Philippine Army Air Corps engineer by the name of Ricardo Quezon (no relation to Manuel L. Quezon, former Philippine president) would establish Quezon Motors in a small shop in Quezon City. Quezon began by converting the surplus American trucks into jeepneys, but as the supply of miltary truck chassis and engines began to dwindle, they eventually went on to develop and acquire the ability to build their own jeepneys in house.
With Quezon being a manufacturer that embraced technological development and matured their assembly process, they entered an agreement with the American automotive giant United American Motor Company (UAMC) to assemble, and later manufacture UAMC automobiles and engines at their plant in Quezon City for the Asian market starting in the mid 60’s. Through this agreement, Quezon became a domestic manufacturer of regular passenger automobiles in the Philippines, eventually designing and manufacturing their own vehicles under the Quezon brand.
John Ward, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Despite the growth of Quezon as a passenger car manufacturer throughout the 60’s and 70’s, they continued to assemble their jeepneys mostly the old fashioned way, with some modernized methods trickling down from the passenger car business, such as machine presses for certain body panels and more modern engines being utilized in their jeepneys.
Like all jeepney manufacturers however, they ultimately prioritized above all else, customizability in their jeepneys. Despite most body panels and decorations being largely the same among Quezon jeepneys, the customer could still ultimately have their jeepney decorated however they like. Quezon became among the first manufacturers to include air conditioning as an option for jeepneys, though this would be rare as they would add days and thousands of pesos to the final design due to the need to seal the body and add all the accessories needed for air conditioning.
Thanks as well to their partnership with UAMC, Quezon allowed for a variety in engine choice, with the mainstay engine throughout the 70’s and 80’s being an Izumi C-series four-cylinder diesel available in various displacements depending on the customer’s buying ability. Quezon would be among the last jeepney manufacturers to offer a gasoline engine when UAMC introduced the locally-produced, all-iron four-cylinder Steel Slug engine in the late 70’s, which Quezon deemed reliable enough to equip in their jeepneys, but like air conditioning, this option was rare despite it being cheaper to equip than the imported Izumi diesels.
Quezon jeepneys of the era were typically built to a higher standard than most others due to the newer, more modern plants they were made in. Ironically, due to the combination of using more modern manufacturing processes and the high customization levels, Quezon jeepneys from the early 70’s onward became rather expensive. They often sold less than their more cheaply-built counterparts and made them a not very frequent sight especially the further away you went from QC.
Good economic growth in the late 60’s and early 70’s brought healthy numbers for domestic sales, thus Quezon began to export some of their passenger cars to other countries. The United States was their primary market, with the partnership with UAMC allowing Quezon to piggy back off an existing large dealership network. Quezons also were sold throughout Asia and Europe.
To help advertise their passenger cars, with support from the Philippine Tourism and Travel Association, Quezon would import a few jeepneys to other countries to be displayed in dealerships and to act as rolling advertisements. These jeepneys, in order to boost brand image, were equipped with some features otherwise unavailable to the typical jeepney back in Manila.
A 1979 Special Built next to the Custom Built. Images like these were common in international Quezon brochures up until the mid-late 80’s.
A Custom Built jeepney with chassis no. PAJJ1X9GVD0001238 would be imported to Europe in 1983. To better serve its purpose as a display model and rolling advertisement, various changes were made versus a typical commercial-use jeepney.
One of the major changes was its size. It was built taller and longer than a typical Manila jeepney of the era to allow more comfort for potential European passengers. While manufactured as a 10-seater of the era, to fit into the game’s limits satiate European safety regulations, fit larger European passengers, and allow for the vehicle to be registered in European countries, no. 1238 would be equipped with lap belts for six passengers in the back, and the middle passenger in the front. The front side occupants were given retractable reel lap and sash belts. This legally defined it as having an 8-passenger carrying capacity.
but who cares really these things are unkillable
While most jeepneys in the Philippines were archaic in design, with a majority lacking the most basic amenities such as a fuel gauge, an external fuel filler, adjustable seats, and a stereo, Quezon equipped no. 1238 and other foreign export display models with a proper fuel gauge, an external fuel filler, and a four-speaker JVC cassette stereo.
No. 1238 was not equipped with air conditioning, but did feature the blower motor and air vents lifted from the Cordova compact car. An adjustable vinyl-covered seat was equipped for this particular vehicle as well, and headrests were given for the two front side occupants. The seats in the back were also covered in the same, tough, durable vinyl material.
Those were just about the differences between a regular commercial service jeepney and this specific dealership display model. Common for private-registered jeepneys in the Philippines were front and rear doors that could be locked with a padlock for security. To enclose the cabin during adverse weather conditions, much like a typical jeepney, clear vinyl covers could be draped over the windows and doors and tied down to the body.
The engine equipped in No. 1238 was a 2.0-litre gasoline UAMC Steel Slug engine typical of compact cars and trucks of the era. Equipped with a single barrel carburetor, it produced somewhere between 60-70 horsepower and over 100 lb-ft of torque, mated to a UAMC 4-speed manual transmission found in small trucks of the era.
Most of the running gear would be shared with other UAMC light-duty vehicles of the era. A good majority of the suspension, steering and brake parts being locally-manufactured variants of components found on compact UAMC pick-up trucks of the era with modifications done to more appropriately fit the jeepney.
The frame itself was of Quezon’s own design, shared with the 60’s and 70’s generations of Laguna, Cordova, and Princesa passenger cars. Which is not to say that these frames weren’t built strong enough for their commercial duties, rather that they were overqualified for regular passenger car duty when found in the aforementioned vehicles.
Its body was painted in Quezon’s most popular color of the era, which was red, thanks in part to the relative success of Ricardo Quezon’s Formula One team. Some white elements were also hand painted throughout with some polished and galvanized stainless steel highlights on minor details.
Quezon equipped it with various eye catching ornaments too, such as pegasus emblems on the sides, iris flowers (a prominent European symbol), as well as numerous horses, antennae, and multicolor reflectors mounted on the front end. The decorations were a mix of both the style typical of city jeepneys (sometimes referred to as “patok” style) and provincial jeepneys, with the abundant hood ornaments and large mudflaps being more akin to the city style, and the higher ground clearance, roof racks, and additional lights being linked to provincial ones. Prominent Quezon and UAMC branding was also placed all around.
The vehicle would remain in possession of the company and occasionally driven around in Europe up until the rapid deterioration of the Philippine economy of the early-mid 80’s and eventually the EDSA Revolution in February 1986, where the company was forced to liquidate some of its assets and exit the market in various countries to stay afloat. Chassis no. 1238 was among the assets that Quezon attempted to sell off in 1986 to keep its operations in Europe standing.
