This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 11, April 24-30, 2005
Drivers’ Income Nosedives
as Oil Price Soars How
much does a jeepney driver, the Philippines’ “king of the road” so to speak,
spend to earn his living for a day? Bulatlat
interviewed jeepney drivers-transport leaders to find out. BY
ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO How much does a jeepney
driver, the Philippines’ “king of the road” so to speak, spend these days to
earn his living for a day? Modesto Floranda knows this too well, being himself a
jeepney driver. Floranda, who is also the
vice president for the National Capital Region (NCR) of the Pinag-isang Samahan
ng mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston or United Nationwide Association
of Drivers and Operators), talked to Bulatlat April 18 at the Welcome
Rotonda, the boundary between Manila and Quezon City, in the heat of the
nationwide transport strike held that day. Piston, together with the
Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines (Fejodap),
the Philippine Confederation of Drivers and Operators-Alliance of Concerned
Transport Organizations (PCDO-ACTO), the Alliance of Transport Operators and
Drivers of the Philippines (Altodap), and the Integrated Metro Bus Operators
Associations (IMBOA), staged the transport strike to protest the latest series
of oil price hikes. Petroleum prices have risen
more than five times since January alone. Welcome Rotonda was one of
the mass-up points and Floranda answered Bulatlat’s questions amid the
blaring of the megaphone and the honking of horns by motorists supporting the
strike. Along Espańa Street in Manila and Quezon Avenue in Quezon City, which
both adjoin the Welcome Rotonda, it was like midnight though the sun was up and
piercingly hot – as it was hard to find a jeepney. Diesel, currently priced at
P26.50 ($0.49 based on a $1:P54.31 exchange rate), is what jeepney drivers use
to fuel their vehicles. (Jeepney is the Filipino’s ingenuous improvisation of
the World War II-vintage GI jeep. The modern jeepney seats about 20 passengers.) Floranda says that everyday
jeepney drivers consume about 30 liters of diesel. This is the same figure given
by Piston chairman Mar Garvida in a March 2004 interview with Bulatlat. At P26.50/liter 30 liters
cost P795 ($14.64). With the minimum fare presently pegged at P5.50 ($0.11), a
jeepney driver has to take in 145 passengers a day just to recover diesel costs.
Interviewed by Bulatlat
last year, Garvida said that a driver takes in an average of 300 passengers a
day in order to earn, i.e., minus the fuel costs. That figure has not changed,
said Floranda. At the present minimum fare
rate, a driver earns a gross income of P1,650 ($30.38) a day. Less the P795
spent for diesel and the P750 boundary fee, the driver is left with P105 in net
income. March 2004 The situation was somewhat
different when Bulatlat interviewed Garvida in March 2004. A driver then had to shell
out some P540 ($9.62 based on the then $1:P56.10 average exchange rate) a day
for diesel and P500 (then $8.91) as his boundary fee. With the minimum fare then
pegged at P4 (then $0.0071), a driver earned a gross income of P1,200 (then
$21.39). Minus P1,040 (then $18.54) for diesel and the boundary fee, driver took
home a net income of P160 (then $2.85). Note that the boundary fee
is also higher today than it was in March 2004. “When petroleum prices
rise, the prices of jeepney parts also rise,” Floranda said. “Operators tell us
that when petroleum prices rise, they also have to raise boundary fees. Every
hike in boundary fees eats into the drivers’ earnings.” As the figures stand, a
jeepney driver looks just slightly less lucky today than he was in March 2004.
But taking into account the increases in the daily cost of living for a family
of six – the average Filipino family – will immediately dispel such impression. As of December 2003, the
national average daily cost of living for a family of six was P455.94 ($8.41
based on the year’s average exchange rate of $1:P54.20). This figure was used as
the yardstick for drivers’ earnings vis-a-vis the cost of living in March 2004.
As of December 2004, the national average daily cost of living for a family of
the same size had shot up to P492.19 ($9.06 based on a $1:P54.31 exchange rate). Whereas in March 2004 a
jeepney driver’s net earnings were P295.94 below the period’s national average
daily cost of living for a family of six, today they are P389.19 below the
national average daily cost of living for a family of the same size. So a jeepney driver these
days, after spending some 12-14 hours (by Floranda’s estimates) – or from hours
before sunrise to hours after sunset – on the streets which are mostly full of
potholes, and over which polluted air hangs, he gets to take home a net income
that is P389.19 below what he needs if he has to support himself and five other
relatives. This, at the end of a day in which he often just barely takes his
meals so he could be on the streets longer and make more trips and thus a little
more money – that is, if there is still such a thing these days considering the
continuing depreciation of the peso. This does not yet include
the instances in which he has to shell out extra money because he in his
stressed-out condition made the mistake of parking where he shouldn’t park
(which is known to vary from time to time depending on traffic enforcers’
whims), and some policeman thinking of having a good time “pounced” on him and
asked him for tong (loosely, bribe money) just so he wouldn’t be issued a
traffic violation ticket. Before deregulation “Drivers were way better
off before the oil industry was deregulated,” said Floranda. The downstream oil
industry was deregulated in 1996 to promote competition and thus pave the way
for “fair” oil prices, according to an article on the website of the Department
of Energy (DoE). Sarbing Repaso, another
Piston member, recalled in a phone interview with Bulatlat that in 1996,
just before the passage of the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act, diesel
cost only P5.50 (then $0.21) a liter. At the end of each day’s work, a driver
paid P400 (then $15.38) as boundary fee. Taking in an average of 300
passengers a day at that year’s minimum fare of P2.50 (then $0.096), the driver
was earning a gross income of P750 (then $28.86) daily. Taking from that the
P165 (then $6.35) spent on diesel daily (P5.50/liter of diesel multiplied by 30
liters a day), as well as the P400 boundary fee, a driver was left with P185
(then $10.58) a day. This was P128.38 below the then national average daily cost
of living of P313.38 (then $12.05). “That was why during that
time, whenever drivers counted their money, they were a bit flashy,” Floranda
recounted with a smile. “But now they could no longer be flashy because their
pockets have nothing left to flash.” Indeed, this writer can
recall various instances when he, as a college junior just a few months before
oil deregulation, had talked with jeepney drivers who thought themselves more
fortunate than the factory workers who then earned P165 (then $6.35) a day. Those days are far behind.
Today the jeepney driver is far less lucky than the factory worker – who, with
the cost of living relentlessly rising and his wages staying where they are, is
also getting more and more unlucky. Comparative oil prices Meanwhile, in an April 17
column for the tabloid Bulgar, Presidential Management Staff chief
Rigoberto Tiglao castigated drivers for not conserving fuel. “Many drivers leave their
engines to belch smoke,” Tiglao wrote. “That way, they burn more than half of
their fuel.” Asked to comment on this,
Floranda said: “I pity those who think like that. What kind of driver wants to
suffer? What kind of driver is he who doesn’t want to earn? But the problem is,
the high prices of petroleum products combined with the taxes on these cause the
dwindling of drivers’ earnings.” In the same column, Tiglao
also wrote that: “In fact, oil prices in the Philippines are not as high as in
other countries.” He cited the following examples:
Country
Unleaded Gasoline
Diesel
(price per liter in pesos) Hong Kong
P86
P52 South Korea
73
46 Singapore
50
33 New Zealand
48
24 Australia
47
49 USA (California)
34
36 Thailand
31
25 Philippines
31
27 “Those figures are
correct,” Floranda said. “But what he fails to take into account are the
differences in the standards of living among the countries he mentioned. Among
those countries, the Philippines has the lowest income.” Bulatlat © 2004 Bulatlat
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Diesel prices up by P21.50/liter since deregulation
Bulatlat