“If we are really the boss, why can’t we feel it?”

Marissa Gonzales, 34, a housewife and mother of four is anticipating that her family’s meager budget will be affected by the one-peso increase ($0.023) in the fare of public utility jeepneys. “Our budget is already insufficient then here comes the increase in transport fare. If we are really the boss, why are we getting poorer?” Gonzales said, referring to President Benigno S. Aquino III’s inaugural speech where he called the people as his boss.
Gonzales last month joined members of several people’s organizations in a protest action, at Welcome Rotunda in Quezon City calling on the government to regulate price increases.
Increases in rates of water services would also be implemented starting this month. According to the Water for the People Network (WPN), the Manila Water Co. will charge $.043 per cubic meter on residential customers using at least 30 per cubic meter per month.
The WPN said the latest water rate hike is unjustifiable. “The private water concessionaires have yet to account for the questionable $22 million they collected from consumers for unimplemented water and sewerage improvement projects.”
The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) group slammed the Aquino government for being “callous and insensitive to the people.”
Gonzales said they could hardly survive through selling of vegetables. “Sometime we earn $6.8 for a day. It is not enough especially since we have four kids to feed and send to school.”
She said they only have sardines, fish or dried fish for meals and very seldom do they have meat.
Like Gonzales, Mylene Odias, local organizer of Gabriela NGO in Tatalon, Quezon City, also condemned the increase in prices of goods and reiterated the call for the scrapping of the 12 percent expanded-value added tax (E-VAT).
“If the E-VAT will be scrapped, ordinary citizens like us will be able to afford to buy cooking oil, rice, and other goods,” Odias said during the protest action.
It has been eight months since Aquino took over the reins of government but there has been no change for the benefit of the people. Gonzales asked: “If we are his boss, why are all the prices going up?”
Bernadette Andales, 42, also a housewife, lamented: “The straight path he is saying is a big lie.”
 “If we are really the boss, why can’t we feel it? He is demolishing urban poor’s houses. If only those relocation sites are not so far from civilization and are free of charge then it is okay with us,” Andales told Bulatlat news, referring to Towerville in Bulacan, a relocation site for victims of typhoon Ondoy last September 2009. Most of those who were relocated there have gone back to Tatalon, said Andales.
Meanwhile, a group of government employees also said President Aquino has been turning a deaf ear to their call for increase in salaries. “We have been calling for a $136 increase in our salaries but he is not listening,” Ferdinand Gaite, national chairman of Courage, said.
“All prices are going up but not a single increase in the wage and salaries are being implemented. This will only result to dire poverty of the people,” Gaite added during the protest action.
“The much-vaunted growth in the economy is meaningless for people when price and fees continue to go up and there is no corresponding increase in wages and salaries,” said Renato Reyes Jr., Bayan secretary general.
Meanwhile, the Philippine government said it may offer subsidies for certain petroleum products as unrest in the Middle East and North Africa causes prices at the pump to surge.
Specific relief measures are to be announced on March 21, the energy ministry said in a statement.
“Among the options being explored are providing the targeted relief to the transport sector that needs it most - public utility vehicles,” the statement said, referring to the buses and minibuses relied on by many Filipinos. Government ministries are also considering setting up a relief fund and corresponding implementation plan, it added.
A ministry source said the fund would essentially be a state subsidy, but did not disclose its size. A high-level “energy contingency committee” will meet on March 21 to decide on measures to address potential threats to oil supply stability, the ministry statement said.
The oil-poor Philippines consumes about 300,000 barrels, or 48mn litres, of oil daily, and subsidies would be a huge drain on state finances. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates account for nearly 81% of the Philippines’ crude oil imports, with Asian countries supplying 12% and Russia 7.0%.
While Saudi Arabia has not suffered serious unrest, the ministry said Philippine petroleum imports passed through Bahrain and Yemen, which have seen some bloody street protests in recent weeks. Unrest in those countries “will have indirect impact on the costing of petrol and petroleum products,” the statement said.
The government ran up a record 314.4bn-peso ($7.25bn) budget deficit last year, equivalent to 3.7% of gross domestic product. Earlier in the week the ministry ordered oil companies and bulk suppliers to maintain a minimum 15-day supply in their inventories, excluding oil currently in transit.
The ministry said oil refiners must also maintain a minimum 30-day supply of both crude oil and refined products except for liquefied petroleum gas, where only seven days’ worth are required.