Saturday, July 5, 2008

The Case Of: The Never-Ending Oil Price Hike


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Not again! Another oil price hike?! This is now the nth time! Actually the 18th time this year that the oil companies here in the Philippines increased their prices of their fuel products. Last month, the per-liter price of unleaded gasoline ranged from P51.83 to P54.07 per liter; diesel at P44.30 per liter to P46.97 per liter; kerosene at P48.65 per liter to P52.30 per liter; and LPG ranging from P593 per 11-kilo to P639 per 11-kilo tank.[1]

Since then, fuel prices increased almost weekly! And now, news of increased prices of diesel and kerosene by P2 per liter, gasoline by P1 liter, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by P1.50 per kilogram[2] are bombarding the Filipino people. How much more can we take?! And according to recent news, the oil prices will still increase until August!

In 14 years, the inflation rate reached it's most high of 11.4 percent this year and is said to be the cause of all the price hike here in our country. High inflation rate means poor purchasing power for the consumers. With high cost of food products, rice products and transportation, how will the Filipino people survive living here in the Philippines?

According to Ms. Ellene Sana (Center for Migrants Advocacy's executive director), more and more Filipinos, documented and undocumented, are forced to work abroad just to earn a little higher than they earn here, and they are now forced to accept jobs that are more demeaning, jobs that even the locals from that foreign country don't even think about doing.[3]

Now, what can we do about this? Although we cannot do anything in a grander scale, maybe in our own little way, we can stop using our private vehicles for a while and just use public transport or maybe carpooling. Though rallies are organized by different transport and economic groups, results will be just miles away if we ourselves don't do anything about this. Let's do our part.

Source: [1] http://www.businessmirror.com.ph
[2] http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105271/
[3] http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105302/

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