Pope Francis is visiting Manila on January 15. His fans and supporters saw it fit that he travels on a jeepney, that quintessential vehicle Filipino makers fashioned out of US WWII reparations junk into a Filipino version of a stretch limo. Only this time, according to writer, Jason Ang, the Pope mobile is fully custom-built for His Holiness: White auto paint, white sidewalls, crystal stars “bling-bling”, and electric fans to air-condition the ride through Manila’s humid and noisy highways. No doubt, there will be a rosary hanging from the rear view mirror, lots of chrome and, heaven-forbid, a sound system!  Whether the Pope’s people recognize it or not, I bet the smart Jesuits, the Pope’s fellow religious brods, sensed that riding a jeepney is a symbolic gesture to the Filipino common Tao,  Pope Francis having been known to favor public transport, in lieu of plush limousines that is not an uncommon choice of wheels by the Church hierarchy. It would be a shame, if they do not have the Pope ride the Jeepney Popemobile. The Filipino jeepney is not just an example of Filipino ingenuity, the skill and ability to make something out of nothing, the Filipino jeepney also also reflects Filipino cultural tropes. According my friend and colleague, emeritus San Francisco State University Professor Penelope Flores, who authored a book along with emeritus City College of San Francisco professor, Araceli Resus, the jeepney may be construed as a metaphor for the Filipino family. Yes, the family. After all the jeepney, as the sole property of the jeepney operator, may indeed be his only home and livelihood. As his home, he is the driver-padre-de-pamilya, who with his hands on the wheel commands the destiny of his vehicle and its passengers. His jeepney “home” is equally decorated and furnished with enough “bling-bling” to compete with movie stars. There is chrome plating that shines like a spotless mirror. There’s  the color plastic tails that flutter intermittently in the stop and go of Manila’s traffic. The driver has the sole authority over his passengers and may decide who gets to ride or not, specially in the front seat. He also manages the till and expertly dispenses change for passengers who persist of paying with larger bills, when its customary just to give the exactly six or eight pesos. Thus, the jeepney with its driver and passengers during that moment of travel from one point to the next stop, is the penultimate model of what Southeast Asian historian Benedict Anderson calls the “imagined community”. In that short moment of time, the passengers and the driver transact economic and social exchange based on the notion of trust. The fare is paid by passing the change onward to the next person closest to the driver and the change if there is one, is returned to the passenger in the same order. There is an implicit statement of trust. Additionally, just like a big family, another passenger may be accommodated and everyone tries makes space to fit the new passenger inside the cab. In that moment  in time, everybody is in good behavior, watching out for everyone, specially the driver as if his passengers were his wards. Picture Pope Francis astride the jeepney Pope Mobile, the “Father” of the largest family of religious practitioners, the community of the faithful, bestowing blessings to Filipino people. No question about it, as most Filipinos will claim. the Pope has come home.