Taxi driver goes viral for being nice

MANILA, Philippines – Ever met a good taxi driver?

These days, there are many Filipinos posting rants and photos online, complaining about rude, picky, or cheating taxi drivers.

There are, however, good ones left in Manila’s big basket of bad apples.

Facebook user Rommel Lopez shared online on Saturday, January 16, his experience with a particularly good apple – a certain Eugenio Ventura.

Ventura is a 63-year-old taxi driver whose honesty and kindness are perhaps rare nowadays.

Lopez hailed Ventura’s taxi at the LRT Roosevelt Station to go to Mother Ignacia Avenue in Quezon City.

“Sir, pasok lang. Hindi ako namimili ng pasahero. Kahit saan kayo pupunta, ihahatid ko kayo,” Ventura said with a smile. (Sir, just get in. I don’t choose passengers. I’ll take you wherever you’ll go.)

“I thought he was just trying hard to be nice. But I was wrong. He wasn’t trying hard. He wasn’t even trying at all,” Lopez said on Facebook.

Ventura, despite his age, still works hard for his youngest child, a working student who is about to graduate from college.

He said he is just doing his job, which is to be nice to passengers, since “kayo ang pinanggagalingan ng aming kabuhayan (you’re the source of our livelihood).”

During the short ride, Lopez learned that Ventura only received P1,200 as his Christmas bonus. 

“When I reached my destination, the meter read P78.50. I gave him a P100. I decided not to get the change but he hurriedly gave me the P20 and my receipt,” said Lopez.

Lopez wanted Ventura to keep the change, but the old man refused, saying giving the exact change is “the right thing to do.”

Before alighting the cab, Lopez asked Ventura if he could take the driver’s photo and post it on Facebook, “para malaman ng marami kung ano ang isang tunay na taxi driver na Pinoy (so that many will know what a real Filipino taxi driver is).

As of Sunday, Lopez’s Facebook post has garnered over 99,000 likes, and 42,000 shares.

Have you met someone like Eugenio Ventura lately? – Rappler.com