Belt-tightening, cost-cutting as oil price hikes rage on
(April 6) - As no end is seen to the continuing oil price hikes which has witnessed 11 price increases since the start of the year, belt-tightening and cost-cutting are just few of the practical measures that Filipinos are forced to do as transport fares and power rates have also consequently risen.
Karla Alvarez, a single mother who works as a private caregiver in Cebu City earning the average daily wage of P287 complains that she doesn’t know anymore where to cut budget costs as her earnings are not even sufficient for their basic needs.
“Everything is increasing. I don’t even know how to budget anymore because no matter how much I try to prioritize my spending, my salary is just not enough,” Alvarez lamented.
Alvarez added that she cannot afford to get sick because she has no additional budget for medicines.
Alvarez is just one of the many Filipinos who are juggling to make ends meet, as the never-ending oil price increases seemed to have driven more and more people deeper into poverty.
“If there is an opportunity for me to work abroad even just as a domestic helper, I gladly and immediately would go,” according to Alvarez whose daughter who just graduated from college still has to find a job.
Officials of the Department of Energy (DOE) said the oil price hikes are determined by world market forces and beyond control as the continuing and spreading unrest in the Middle Easthas aggravated the situation.
DOE-7 Regional Director Engr. Antonio Labios urged the public to adopt measures such as turning off lights when not in use and change incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent lightsbecause its power use is more economical.
“Little things that we do which can result to more savings must be done as part of belt-tightening measures in these times of crisis,” according to Labios.
Labios also said with the exorbitant fuel costs, “we should once-in-a-while use public transport to save money intended for gas consumption. The money that can be saved with such practical measures can be used for other more basic purposes like food and health needs,” Labios further said.
As costs of basic goods have also gone up as a chain effect of transport fare hike, the Philippine Government is now planning to provide fuel subsidy to the PUJ sector (public utility jeepney) and is mulling to include farmers in the subsidy as well.
“The fuel subsidy is just a temporary measure at these times when fuel prices are high,” Communications Development and Strategic Planning Sec. Ricky Carandang of the Presidential Communications Operations Office declared.
DYLA Station Manager Jun Tagalog who tackled the issue on rising oil price increases in his morning program said “Since January this year, oil firms have risen fuel prices by 11 times with a total of P7.50 increase per liter of gasoline” as he added the uncertainty of stable oil prices ahead.
Tagalog said that though global market forces are behind the rising costs of fuel, but that when cost of fuel in the world market is down, oil firms are slow to respond.
“I can remember only two times when there was a rollback in minimal amounts,” Tagalong continued.
Tagalog said “we have no choice except to endure and adjust. Each one of us should just adopt belt-tightening measures” as the radio executive expressed hopes the conflicts in the Middle East be resolved soon because of its drastic impact to the continuing fuel hikes. (PIA-Cebu/Fayette C. Rinen)