ILOILO City – Public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers are getting a reprieve from weekly fuel price increases. Oil companies announced they would be slashing prices effective 6 a.m. today – gasoline by P5.45 per liter and diesel by P11.45 per liter.
Though this price rollback is not enough to offset the 11 consecutive price hikes since January, taxi driver Wil Bunda said this is better than nothing.
“Maayo gid gawa kay nagnubo na sia. Makabulig-bulig gamay sa amon,” Bunda told Panay News.
For gasoline, the net increases have reached P20.35 per liter since the start of 2022, according to the Department of Energy. For diesel, it is P30.65.
According to Bunda, he spends P1,000 daily for fuel – double the P500 he spent for it before the series of fuel price increases.
With the price rollback, he hopes to reduce his fuel expenses by at least P100 daily.
“Kis-a mga P2,000 ang kita ko. Buhinan sang boundary nga P800 kag gatong ko nga P1,000 ang mapuli namon P300 asta P200 lang,” said Bunda.
“Boundary” refers to the rent drivers pay taxi operators for the units they drive.
There were times Bunda fell short of the P800 he was supposed to pay his taxi unit’s operator. But he was glad, he said, that the taxi operator was understanding and kind.
The oil companies that announced a p rice rollback were Petron, Pilipinas Shell, Seaoil, Caltex, Cleanfuel, Flying V, Petro Gazz, Phoenix, Total, and Unioil.
Taxi driver Rodrigo Bretaña hopes the price rollback would be bigger because the bulk of his earnings for the day “didto lang nagakadto sa gasoline stations.”
“Tag-P800 na kada adlaw ang akon gasto sa pagpatughong pa lang. Sang una P600 lang ran. Ginansya na daad namon ang P200 nga ina pero nagkadto pa sa gasolina,” Bretaña lamented.
For his part, taxi Bernardo Passio is thankful for the rollback although he wished, “Mas daku pa gid tani kay grabe gid ‘ya ang pagsaka sang gatong sang nagligad nga senemana.”
He told Panay News he was forced to spend P1,000 daily for fuel from the P500 he used to allot for it.
Passio said he also learned to be more entrepreneurial. He peddles to his passengers the turmeric tea that his wife makes for extra income.
This rollback, he said, “makapiyan-piyan o buhin sa amon rulokdohan.”
The fuel price rollback today is the first time since the start of the year. Last week, diesel price shot up by P13.15 per liter, gasoline by P7.10 per liter.
Super Parola route jeepney driver Roy Breto, for his part, called for a much bigger rollback.
“Kulang pa ina. Daku pa nga kulang kay grabe man ang pagsaka sang nagligad,” he told Panay News.
His daily take-home earning dropped to P300 due to the weekly fuel price hikes, Breto said.
His P800 daily fuel expenditure is way bigger than his daily net earnings, he lamented.
For his part, Jaro-CPU driver Toto Ginono described as “good news” the price rollback but he wished the price slash would result to a return to the December 2021 prices of fuel.
He expressed hope that the rollback would continue.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine mainly caused the series of oil price increases.
Russia is among the world’s biggest oil producers.
Even if Russia is not a supplier of oil and gas to the Philippines, which is heavily dependent on imported oil, the global supply disruptions caused oil prices to escalate./PN
