Her father’s jeepney is exactly her age and named after her. All of her young life, it was the same jeepney that sustained the family through her father’s long days and nights driving polluted routes, before catching a few hours of sleep inside the jeepney. All of her father’s hard work enabled Hya Bendaña to focus on school and graduate college valedictorian of Ateneo de Manila University in 2019. Now she’s paying it forward by speaking out on behalf of jeepney drivers as the government phases out jeepneys as part of its contentious modernization program. Hya talks to Howie Severino about the challenge to achieve despite her poverty and offers an insider’s view of the world of the iconic jeepney.