Mushrooming 'jollijeeps' do jolly good business

They're fast, cheap, practical and accessible. In fact, one can find them everywhere in Makati City's central business district (CBD).

The ubiquitous "jollijeeps" have provided food for the busy Makati City employees for more than two decades and it appears that they will remain a permanent fixture in what has been considered the country's central financial and commercial district.

With a daytime population of three million, Makati's CBD is one big market for entrepreneurs like Ding Ramos, 54, who are willing to wake up early, cook at least 10 different kind of viands per day and put up the necessary capital to run a street side eatery like the one he has along Makati City's Valero street.

"It's a good business to be in," he says as he scoops up piping hot rice from a huge steel vat, one of at least five that he uses daily to serve his regular customers. On a flat aluminium panel that serves as a table, sweaty construction workers cradling their safety helmets jostle for dining space with middle-rank executives wearing neckties as they rhythmically spoon the watery soup that Ramos serves for free with every meal.

In a working atmosphere rife with patronage and rank privileges, jollijeeps serve as the great leveller, transcending across the working class strata and allowing all kinds of employees from every pecking order to share a common table where everyone is equal.

Jollijeeps started appearing around the late 1980s, when enterprising businessmen, realising the high cost of food normally found in canteens, thought of setting up an eatery where the usual overhead costs of doing business could be minimised.

The tiny eateries started out as long-bodied passenger jeeps that the owners could park on the streetside and pay parking fees instead of renting space inside buildings that would be prohibitive for small businessmen.

Vehicles, with their stock of food to be sold for the day, would park at the side of the street in the morning and leave before the evening rush hour just as everyone in Makati CBD was going home.

The idea caught on among other entrepreneurs and soon dozens of jollijeeps began mushrooming along the side streets of the busy Makati CBD.

Actually, the moniker for these eateries came from a famous local fastfood, Jollibee, which is synonymous with good food and quick service. Thus, the passenger vehicle became "Jolli-jeep".

But as jollijeeps proliferated, the quality of food soon became a serious concern. Sanitation became a serious issue with the joke doing the rounds that every jollijeep food purchase comes free with flies.

This was when the Makati City government ordered a crack-down on the mobile eateries. Last year, in place of the rusty vehicles, well-made aluminium stalls, complete with sinks and an area for stoves and food storage began sprouting up.

A private firm, Coffenomenon, was contracted by the Makati City government to rent out the stalls at a rate of P500 ($9.61) per day to the stall operators. The authorities also required strict sanitary standards for the businessmen such as the use of disposable cutlery and plates.

"Actually, we're having more customers now than before," says Alicia Martirez, 35, who owns a stall a block away from Ramos.

Somehow, employees who were turned off by the unsanitary conditions of the first jollijeeps are now returning in droves.

But while the flies may have left, the name jollijeep has stuck.

"As long as employees want cheaper, tasty food, jollijeeps will always stay in Makati City," says Ramos, who once played the trombone aboard international cruise ships.