Doldrums

A now jobless ex-security guard I interviewed last year messaged me recently to borrow P1,000. She needed to pay her rent in the borrowed dwelling where she lives with her children.

Just the other day, she sent me a photo of a family member in the hospital. The P1,000 she borrowed went instead to pay the medical bills, although it wasn’t enough.

The bills are piling up and it’s been challenging to make a living. There are no jobs for seniors like her. To put food on the table, she opened a small coffee kiosk for motorcycle riders working the graveyard shift but that’s not enough, she said.

The situation has been increasingly dire for people like her and for millions of Filipinos now.

President Marcos and his economic team must do so much more to help this nation of 112 million.

Filipinos are desperate for help and everyone’s feeling the pinch.

Transport fares are already up; airfares will follow soon. Prices of food in wet markets, groceries and even the quintessential neighborhood talipapa have all gone up.

For traditional jeepneys, for instance, the fare for the first four kilometers will increase to P14 from P13, with an additional P2 for every succeeding kilometer. For modern jeepneys, the fare for the first four kilometers will rise from P15 to P17, with an additional P2.40 for every succeeding kilometer.

Bus riders will also be affected.

For Metro Manila and city buses, the new fares are: P15 for the first five kilometers for ordinary buses and P2.49 for every succeeding kilometer, according to the LTFRB.

For TNVS, the favorite mode of transportation among Gen Zs and millennials, the new base fares are: P55 for hatchbacks, P65 for sedans, P75 for AUVs/SUVs and P165 for premium vehicles.

Airfares, too

And if we think we could relax this holiday season by squeezing in a bit of travel, we’re mistaken.

It’s going to be challenging as well because ticket prices are on the rise.

Filipinos looking forward to their usual holiday flights will find themselves paying more – some by as much as nearly P14,000.

This is after the government likewise approved a new round of fuel surcharge hikes.

The fuel surcharge will go up to Level 17 for the period Oct. 1 to 15, from Level 14 currently, marking the highest fuel surcharge since the Level 18 applied in the first half of May, the Civil Aeronautics Board said.

At Level 17, airlines can collect a fuel surcharge of P559 to P1,635 for domestic flights and an additional fee of P1,846.1 to P13,726.58 for international services.

The rise is largely because of the skyrocketing fuel prices, which continue to be affected by the Middle East conflict.

And yet, there’s still no end in sight to the war, which means we should brace for even more challenging times.

We should expect further increases in the food that we buy because transportation costs have gone up.

The challenging times are felt almost everywhere.

On Tuesday, which was practically payday already for some companies, I went to a popular mall in Quezon City and I noticed that there are hardly any customers in most shops – from clothes to restaurants.

Only a popular coffee chain is filled with people but a closer look at the tables shows just one cup or even none. Everyone’s just mostly on their laptops or phones with nothing much to drink or eat.

I met up with a former intern of The STAR to congratulate her for graduating with honors. She is happy but anxious at the same time.

The economy, she said, is finding it hard to absorb tens of thousands of graduates like her.

It’s difficult to find a job, she said – with or without Latin honors.

The latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the unemployment rate rose to six percent in July, the highest since January and February 2022, when it reached 6.4 percent.

The unemployment rate translated to 3.14 million jobless Filipinos, higher than the 2.59 million in the previous month and in the same month last year.

This does not yet include the batch of recent graduates.

As if all these weren’t enough, the Philippines continues to grapple with inflation, which remains elevated at 6.1 percent in August, although it eased from 6.2 percent in July.

It’s not only the wage earners that are affected but also the middle class.

Quick fixes

In response, the Marcos administration has turned to fuel subsidies and short-term ayudas but this, in the long run, will hurt the country’s fiscal health.

President Marcos will end up leaving his successor and the succeeding administrations with even more debt.

Recover the money

But what the government can also do is to recover the stolen flood-control funds and put this to good use.

The government has already sent some individuals behind bars while others who turned state witnesses have committed to return the money.

This money should go back to state coffers and be channeled to help Filipinos in these difficult times – to fund better health services, to modernize the public transportation system or to help bring down the cost of food by building more roads.

Whatever it is, Marcos’ economic team must do more.

The situation is dire and it’s not getting any better.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on X 
@eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.