Rolling Street Art: The Beautiful Rides of Cebu

P. Bion Griffin Professor Emeritus,

University of Hawai`i, Mānoa 

Graffiti became street art; Taggers gave way to Banksy. Graffiti became the stuff of museums, of gallery showings, and of artists instead of criminals. Or the criminals became seen as artists.  The painters, owners, and riders of the minibuses of Cebu, especially from the South terminal to Carcar and back have one-upped them all…well, maybe not Bansky[1]. Many of the buses are rolling works of art, of fantasy, and of cultural explosion. Looking more closely we may see an exuberance specifically of Cebuano culture; looking more widely we see not only mini-buses but wild jeepneys coursing the streets of Cebu City and tricycles, or habal-habal, everywhere, the latter pimped out, blinged out, like few others in the Philippines. Street art is now rolling on the streets. The question that drives this anthropology of art paper is simply “WHY CEBU?” What is it about Cebuano Culture that produces such art?

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Plate One. Rolling street art. My favorite.  Outside Carcar, 2011

 

Plate Two A B & C. Details from Plate One. Art without a doubt.

 

Plate Three. Two views of life? “It’s more fun in the... “& “The VATICAN a holy place”. Unpainted Ceres buses in the background. Religious  imagery is often found on all types of PUVs.

At a national conference at the University of the Philippines Diliman I briefed this query to a Cebu-based academic artist who had delivered a paper about Cebuano artists and their problems with reception, recognition, and sales. Her answer was a blank face and complete lack of comprehension. Ah, not an anthropologist, I thought. No oil painting, no sculpture. Best I continue informant interviews, photography and looking at what the anthropology of art might say. Then, on an AirAsia flight, I spotted in the inflight magazine  the article “Art from the street.” More importantly, one accompanying photograph included an artist painting a bus (Lau 2018)[2]. An epiphany! “Instead of walls, the specially commissioned ‘moving’ mural was painted on a public bus – literally taking art from the streets for a spin on the streets” (Lau 2018:81 print edition).   I realized that Cebu buses are a genre of street art. A new avenue anthropological investigation opened. But for my article, the key word is anthropology, not gallery art. Again, why and how do we explain this Cebuano distinction? What anthropological insights and contributions may we make?

As I approach this thrust, I must consider the anthropology of art,  the idea of Cebuano culture, as opposed to Filipino culture. And I must zero in on the painted buses themselves and on the owners, painters, and riders. Lastly, I must look at Luzon buses, jeepneys and tricycles and learn why they are by and large such unexciting entities compared with those that circle around the Carcar City rotunda.

But are they, those jeepneys, tricycles and buses of Luzon only pale reflections of their Visayan kin? Are no statistical analyses on hand to build as evidence? The answer is no. One could go on the streets, count, photograph and somehow judge Manila versus Cebu City, or Baguio versus Carcar, but really, that still necessarily brings in a subjective, judgmental component. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; art is individually considered, judged, and praised or condemned. Your hardy writer has been studying the multitude of public utility vehicles (PUV) he has been riding since 1972, and I trust his judgement! But many variables do present themselves. Urban versus rural, big air con buses versus minibuses, the economies of the regions, and, perhaps, cultural expressions.

In Baguio City, where jeepneys tend to be old, dirty and poorly presented, some may be excused because their round trips are not to and from delightful Carcar, but via remote towns and villages over unpaved mountain roads. That said, Baguio’s city jeepneys are seldom painted in a distinctive fashion. Most frequently, stick-on decals of Disney cartoon characters and other themes are used. Some interesting air brush motifs are found but treating the vehicle as a single canvas is unlikely. Exceptions exist.

Plate Four (above) and Five. The Baguio exceptions. Note that these are long-bodied models. The jeepney “Iron Maiden” in the upper plate is for city transport (I could take it when going home from the market) while the model below is a mountain traversing unit. Both sport chromed horses on their hoods. Very Baguio.  Very Country. As I gaze at the designs on the upper jeepney, I wonder if I am off base re Cebu. That design would fit nicely on the road to Carcar.

Manila jeepneys, like Baguio’s, still largely follow the style of the traditional, jeep-based vehicle. These, made by Sarao and other long-time builders, have evolved from the earliest styles, all originating with the WWII American jeep. Seldom does one today still find a grouping of chrome horses on the hood, but otherwise paintjobs and chrome are rather standard.

Plate Six. Down a country road, old-time chrome horses leading the way.

 

Plate Seven. A plain oldie from 1969 on a Manila – Suburbs run. One can’t get a simpler livery.

Occasionally one sees a standout; on Ortigas avenue by C 5, I was enthralled by a new stretch jeepney painted in solid high-gloss black with gold metal trimming. One also sees the occasional fine job of airbrushing themes of various genres; Cebu is not the only location of beautiful rides, but I wonder if it holds a big lead. If so, why? That is my question that drives this paper.

Cebu does have what most of Luzon now longer sees: minibuses[3].

Plate Eight. A minibus in all its glory at the Carcar Rotunda.

In the 1970s and 1980s minibuses ruled the provincial roads of Luzon. Running relatively short hauls, say from San Fernando, La Union,  or Vigan, Ilocos Sur, to Dagupan, Pangasinan, they were the rides of choice over jeepneys which made even shorter and slower trips. Only the big corporate carriers used the large and sometimes airconditioned buses: Philippine Rabbit, Victory Liner, Times Transit, Viron, Pantranco, Dugupan Bus Line and the famous F Franco “flying coffin.” None of the Luzon vehicles of any size or configuration had colorful liveries. The Rabbit was red. Times was Green, Pantranco did have a stripe and so on. Jeepneys and minibuses sported the names of drivers, conductors, and their supposed paramours or fantasies.

Plate Nine. The “real” minibuses of Luzon in the Cagayan Valley about 1982. Your author is standing

by Lallo Bus Line’s “Star Bus of the North.” The “Godfather” of the LBL line is to the left.

Sometimes a phrase such as “God Bless this Trip” or “Midnight Cowboy” added character. Now the minibuses have been replaced by larger buses, the impersonal UV Express Toyota HiAces or the hybrid faux-jeepney minibuses. By a curious twist, the big corporation  buses now are colorful with swirling paint designs, all uniform per company. The paint jobs identify the company; one glance tells that the bus is a Victory Liner, not Florida or Genesis. But still…no art there.

Cebu does have its large, uniform corporate-owned bus line, Ceres. Ceres are solid yellow [but see below] and are large buses usually on longer routes. The painting is pleasant, but no fantasy creeps in, no joie de vivre. Ceres is just a bus. The buses of Cebu that are most elaborate and the subject of this paper are “mini”- to “a bit smaller than Ceres.”  They are the canvases upon which the spirit of the Cebuano seems to be most vividly presented.

 

 Plate Ten. Examples of the “new jeepney/minitruck”, an nicely painted old jeepney, and an attractive tricycle, all representative of Cebu City transport, not inter-city travel. A close viewing suggests that  “Pearl,” whoever she is, gets around! The lower left new jeepney is in the Camotes islands but is pure Cebuano. The tricycles may be in Carcar. Note the “Plain Jane” vehicle in the upper right photograph.

 I do have to repeat that Cebu “jeepneys,” are not really jeepneys, but a replacement style now nearly

 ubiquitous, but not universal. The styles extant, primarily within Cebu City proper, often are  examples

of the vivid, tricked out, colorful PUVs and tricycles that I see as special to Cebu and perhaps the

 Visayas.

What is it about the Cebu buses that sparks my interest? The designs are usually complex and

 storytelling, or at least attention grabbing. Stories are what live in us, that involve us. The images may

 be religious or perhaps anti-religious or even sacrilegious. Fantasy and the fantastic, muted sexuality

 and adventure, exploding colors, and personal statements all adorn the buses and jeepneys. The same

 could be argued for buses and jeepneys, especially jeepneys, even in the far reaches of Luzon. But I

 assert it is a matter of degree. This brings us back the difficult to answer question is the rolling street art

 somehow reflective of Cebuano culture.

But what is the elusive thing called Filipino Culture? First, we can dispense with the voluminous writings that grew out of the Ateneo de  Manila’s Institute of Philippine Culture during the 1960s and 1970s, writing that still dominates the lay public’s understandings. The work of Fr. Frank Lynch, Jaime Bulatao, Mary Hollnsteiner and others harked back to the dominant themes of American anthropology and the University of Chicago’s Philippines Studies Program (Lynch, Yengoyan, Makil, Hollnsteiner 2004; May G 1998). No fault may be found, I argue, with this anthropology, but it was a creature of its time. Culture was seen in normative terms and with concomitant theoretical underpinnings. Filipino Culture was something shared, not differentially participated in. Utang na loob, pakikisama, and the ideals of behavior and the Filipino family were explored and generalized upon. Variation in culture as a symbol system, as how people participated in their culture in different ways and with different meanings, did not draw the attention now highlighted in anthropology. I do not find a search of ideals or norms a fruitful way to investigate the rolling street art of Cebu buses. Still, one can’t entirely escape, since we are attempting to differentiate aspects of Cebuano culture from the overall entity, the symbol system, the ways of looking at the world, the variable and fluctuating designs for living that one might call Filipino.

I am reminded of Conrad de Quiros’s essay in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (May 11, 2014:A10) and his point that “…Our [Filipino] culture being steeped in myth and legend, our heroes being larger than life and savior figures” and “We are a culture too that isn’t always able to distinguish fantasy and reality.” More recently, Joel Ruiz Butuyan also in PDI (May 21, 2018) cast another angle on the same point “Politicians are viewed as fantastical beasts who can be benevolent or malevolent, and people generally let them be, just like they do with good and bad spirits such as engkanto, tikbalang, and nuno sa punso.”  Teledramas are full of the most amazing beings, often bad boys and girls, and the fates of interactions with the same.  I like to think of the Philippines as a “theater state.” I draw on Clifford Geertz’s book  Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali (1980) for inspiration, and on a personal communication from Douglas Yen (n.d., back in the day) in discussing the media explosion with the discovery of the Tasaday of South Cotabato, Mindanao. He pointed out the level of fantasy swirling through the urban Philippines with political dramas, the Tasaday, the “Thrilla in Manila,” (the 1975 boxing match of Mohamad Ali and Joe Frazier), and wild street demonstrations before and after the declaration of martial law. Today every evening television news is scripted with drama: a murder, preferably gruesome, women crying, a sexy lady or two, even a sexy man or two, and political intrigue: theater. The whole Philippines is committed to and enthralled by festivals, their parades, and their fantasies. Nearly every town of any size has a fabulous annual festival, parade, beauty contest and politicians strutting their stuff. Perhaps most convincing are the performances of Congressmen and Senators. The ultimate was the August 27, 2025, boxing match between Philippine National Police Chief Nicolas Torre III and Davao Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, a “dare” match turned into a fund raiser at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum! What a show! And Duterte skipped out (Argosino, 2025 ).   

Within Filipino culture as the foundation of a theater state we may locate plentiful variation. I speculate that the buses of Cebu exemplify a special Cebuano exploration and display of their participation in this theater. I might, with caution, mention popular cultural stereotypes that have for years pervaded my hearing. Of course, stereotyping is dangerous, and falls back on the normative classifying that I have already diminished. Still, at least in the popular imagination, where there is smoke, there is fire, and the various ethnic groups seem to have a bit of both the smoke and the fire. So, Ilocanos are alleged, as a group, to be thrifty,[4] industrious, and brave/aggressive. Tagalogs may be proud and assertive, Waray, like Ilocanos are brave or strong. Illongas are supposedly status conscious. Cebuanos, our folk of interest, may be kind, gentle, slow to anger (and if angry, not showing so until…bang!) and given to love of the good things of life. I suggest we transition this latter notion to the exuberance in display, a vivid approach to one’s surroundings, and a touch of the mystical. The buses do have more than a touch of magic and fantasy.

Art from an anthropological perspective must be clarified. The justification for including vehicle paint jobs as art will buttress the interpretation of images viewed and presented.  J. Coole has a succinct view that enables a beginning analysis.

“The anthropology of art studies and analyses the wide range of material objects produced by people around the world. These are considered not merely as aesthetic objects but are understood to play a wider role in people's lives, for instance in their beliefs and rituals. The materials studied include sculpture, masks, paintings, textiles, baskets, pots, weapons, and the human body itself. Anthropologists are interested in the symbolic meanings encoded in such objects, as well as in the materials and techniques used to produce them…. Another central concern of this branch of the discipline has been to analyse the form and function of objects and to explore the relations between these and aspects of the wider society….Since the 1960s in particular, anthropologists have produced increasingly sophisticated analyses of visual materials. More recently, closer attention has been paid to the different ideas of aesthetic value in different societies. Increasing attention has also been paid to the ways in which material objects made in one sphere come to have value in another. For example, there have been a number of recent studies of the tourist and art markets as well as of the role of museums.” Jeremy Coote (n.d., see references for URL.)

 

Paul Bohannan adds perspectives useful in studying bus paintings. “All art can be said to have two sweeping characteristics: it embodies a message within an idiom of communication, and it arouses a sense of mystery – a feeling that it is more than it appears to the intellect to be” Bohannon (1964:141).

I started my thinking on the beautiful rides of  Cebu in 2010. I scratched  notes, made visits to Cebu and Carcar, queried assorted locals, and continued to wrestle with the central question. Do the painted buses and jeepneys, and even the blinged tricycles reveal a special exuberance in Cebuano culture? Informants – bus conductors, the occasional rider and stand by usually had difficulty articulating what the bus designs meant to them. Of course, this is typical of one pressed to come up with an explanation “out of the blue,” but most thought the painted buses and the artwork itself made the bus look attractive. “The owner wants a good-looking bus to compete with other owners and buses” was often a response to our queries. “Buses should look good.” “I’m proud of my bus.” “I haven’t thought about your question.” “Yes, Carcar buses are special, like Carcar.” A professional painter of buses – he does an entire bus, not piece work, noted that he plans the paint job with the owner, often selecting designs from books of illustrations. He considers the whole bus when he undertakes a job. As to deeper meanings, he passed, but clearly took pride in his art. I must admit that when asked about the meaning of a piece of art, I hedge and leave it to university art professors to tell me what the artist meant by his or her result! Perhaps a symposium at the University of San Carlos might bring reflections.[5]

In May 2022, after the isolation of the Covid pandemic, I returned to Cebu to wrap up my research and finish this essay. As they say, “FAIL.” Few pieces of rolling street art were seen. No exuberance in decorated buses, jeepneys or, truly, anything met my eyes. It seemed all gone. The research wraps up with a possible negation of the hypothesis, or a rejection of any distinctiveness in Cebuano culture as seen in “rolling street art.” The streets of Cebu and the roads of the island were loaded with government mandated mini-buses and by multitudes of Ceres buses. The former were painted a uniform off-white, the latter shared an attractive livery of no great distinction, but not the original universal yellow. The rolling street art is but sporadically seen. I failed to travel the Cebu City to Carcar route, so I cannot be certain of my interpretation. The plethora of plain buses north of Cebu City seem to make the case that rolling street art is passé.

The first point herein is that the research problem perhaps has been solved. The idea may wrong. True, I have not explained the existence of the Carcar painted buses, but the hypothesis cannot be strongly supported. The second point is to speculate why such is the case. Lots of anthropological ideas cum research projects end up busts. This is to be expected and thought through, but not necessarily turned into a renewed project. Still, I was shocked to find the change. I wonder if I overstated the singularity of the painted buses. Most importantly, I suggest that a perfect storm, no pun intended, has changed the public transportation world of Cebu. The pandemic from March 2020 until the present in which I write this line, May 2022, now fading, crippled small operators financially. No one could ride together on buses until recently. Supporting business closed. Drivers and conductors had no employment, hence no money. Mini-bus owners, small businesspersons themselves, likely were seldom able to survive the loss of income. Then came the typhoon that savaged the island. As of May 2022, the evidence of terrible destruction still confronts one. Small operators may have experienced destruction of their infrastructure. In any case, two new PUV systems, funded by deeper pockets, perhaps took over.

Ceres buses back in 2010 were largely limited to long distance routes and were few compared with the minibuses. They were larger, sometimes air-conditioned and fares were a little higher as I recall. If a traveler wanted a maximally comfortable seat and a trip with fewer stops and goes, Ceres was the choice. Traveling from Cebu City’s South Terminal to well beyond Carcar, Ceres was also the choice. Ceres is, reportedly, the largest bus franchise in the Philippines and “rules” the Visayas. The company has now extended to Luzon. And, clearly, it has taken over the shorter rural hauls recently the domain of the painted minibuses. I infer that the company saw the opening and quickly put a fleet of large buses onto the rural roads and city streets of Cebu. And, they had company.

The white minibuses are ubiquitous on Cebu City’s streets. The numbers of wildly painted “jeepneys” seem to have plummeted. The minibuses are meant to upgrade the quality of vehicles. The replacement of the older style jeepney is mandated by law and came into effect late in the President Duterte administration. I had surmised that the demise of older jeepneys was largely a Manila and Luzon phenomenon. In those places the very old diesel powered jeepneys had been on the road since time immemorial and were often smoke belching beasts. Cebu had largely left behind the traditional jeepney, replacing it with a more modern vehicle with no ancestry to the WWII jeep.  Again, I was mistaken. The numbers of  minibuses (one cannot call them modern jeepneys, no matter what the politicians and bureaucrats say) suggest that our old painted buses and evolved jeepneys could not survive this onslaught.

The combined powers of big business, Ceres, and the  government fostered “modern” PUVs, the buses, some allegedly electric were, I suggest, the basis of the disappearance of the rolling street art buses owned by individual entrepreneurs. I still think that the minibuses seen running from South Terminal to Carcar (and others) were emblematic of a Cebuano joie de vivre, but I see no anthropological basis for making a stronger assertion. Perhaps such a spirit will be revived as the effects of the pandemic and typhoon dissipate but running up against the powers of Ceres and government organized and controlled environmentally friendly buses makes the prospect dim. Did a special Cebuano artistic excitement ever exist? Or does a pan Philippines flair for wild color, fantasy, and account for my buses? Has the anthropology of art in this case failed, or is something hidden that the anthropologist fails to see? Inquiring minds want to know. But, whatever the reasons, those buses are beautiful rolling street art.

 

References and  selected resources for additional information

Argosino, Faith 2025 Torre gets the better of another Duterte. Philippine Daily Inquirer. P. 6, July 28, 2025.  Print edition.

Anonymous 2024. Philippine Street Art: Reflecting Social Issues. EduBirdie.https://hub.edubirdie.com/examples/graffiti-art-and-street-art-in-the-philippines-reflection-of-social-issues-in-the-philippines/. Downloaded 7-27-2025.

Anonymous 2021. Philippine Street Art Scene. https://streetartnews.net/2021/08/philippine-street-art-scene.html#google_vignette. Downloaded 7-27-2025.

Bohannon, Paul 1964. Africa and Africans. The Natural History Press, Garden City, New York.

Cabildo, Aldous Vince 2022. Street Art in the Philippines: 10 Spots That Tell Stories and Expressions. TripZilla Philippines. https://www.tripzilla.ph/street-art-in-the-philippines/9110 downloaded 7-27-2025.

Calara, Perry M. 2008. Trisikel, habal-habal or pedicab. Sun-Star p. 6, February 10, 2008.

Coote, Jeremy n.d. Anthropology of Art  https://www.discoveranthropology.org.uk/about-anthropology/specialist-areas/anthropology-of-art.html  Downloaded 8-21-2018.

Ellsworth-Jones, Will 2013. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-story-behind-banksy-4310304/  downloaded 8-20-2018.

Geertz, Clifford 1980. Negara: The  Theatre State in Nineteenth Century Bali. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

Lau, Danny 2018. “Art from the Streets,” Travel360.com. AirAsia Inflight Magazine. May. 76-83.

Lynch, Frank,  Yengoyan, Aram A., Makil, Perla Q., Hollnsteiner, Mary Racelis. 2004. Philippine society and the individual: selected essays of Frank Lynch. Quezon City, Philippines : Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University : distributed by Ateneo de Manila University Press. Rev. ed.

 

May, GA 1998. Father Frank Lynch and the Shaping of Philippine Social Science. Itinerario 22 (3): 99-121.

 Riva, Emma n.d. Venazir Martinez, Baguio City’s Anthro-preneur. https://upmag.com/venazir-martinez/ Downloaded 7-27-2025. Great photographs of Baguio City wall paintings.

Roque, Kevin Christian 2024 Revolutionary Walls:  The Activist’s Canvas. UP Forum, University of the Philippines. https://up.edu.ph/revolutionary-walls-the-activists-canvas/ Downloaded 7-27-2025. Good general introductory text.

 

Contact: pbiongriffin@gmail.com

Citation: Griffin, P. Bion 2025 Rolling Street Art: the Beautiful Rides of Cebu. Wandering with An Old Anthropologist. Baguio City, Philippines. 29 July 2025. Blog post. http://wanderingoldanthropologist.blogspot.com/.

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[1] Bansky is arguably the world’s most famous and reclusive “street artist.” See Elsworth-Jones (2013). Philippines street art is too big to discuss here. The References and Resources section list with URLs several good sources.

[2] The online version does not have the print version bus painting. Can we imagine a Cebu City art gallery commissioning a bus painting?  

[3] Interestingly, in 2021 the mandate to replace jeepneys by new, custom-built nouveau jeepneys, complete with air conditioning and wi-fi has re-introduced the minibus, but in an urban context. Consortium-owned, the paint jobs are decidedly pedestrian. They are also allegedly environmentally friendly, being  occasionally electric powered.

[4] I will use English glosses, incomplete and inaccurate although they may be. The issue is all fuzzy and subject to passionate debate.

[5] Perhaps the task of the research was beyond  the anthropologist -me. I do not speak Cebuano. My Tagalog is good for ordering a drink in a bar or arguing with a taxi driver. My assistant spoke good English, but the idea of my inquiry seems to have been lost in translation. Getting into the deep  meaning of bus art was beyond us.