Cash handouts, fare hikes as Philippines battles soaring fuel costs

Officials have unveiled a series of price hikes across a range of local transport. Read more at straitstimes.com.

MANILA – Hundreds of Philippine tricycle drivers lined up on March 17 in Manila for cash handouts they hope will provide temporary relief from a war-driven surge in fuel prices that has left the country scrambling for short-term answers.

Since US-Israeli strikes on Iran triggered the Middle East war in February, the archipelago nation has implemented a four-day work week for civil servants, seen ferry schedules reduced in some areas and begun eyeing the possibility of Russian oil imports.

As the drivers awaited their handouts on March 17, officials unveiled a series of price hikes across a range of local transport, including the ubiquitous smoke-belching jeepneys millions of Filipinos rely on to get to work each day.

But the increases did not extend to the country’s hundreds of thousands of tricycle drivers, who earn money by carrying passengers down narrow, winding alleys on small motorbikes and carriages.

“These are the highest fuel prices I’ve ever experienced,” said Mr Romeo Cipriano, who has driven a tricycle for four decades.

The subsidy of 5,000 pesos (S$107) would be “better than nothing”, the 60-year-old said, describing how he had arrived at 6am to avoid standing in the tropical heat, something his high blood pressure would not allow.