Saturday, March 15, 2008 Roperos: Beleaguered poor By Godofredo M. Roperos
UNDER present economic circumstances, the nation’s more than 27 million people reportedly living below the poverty line might be in for another social shock. While the nation is said to be enjoying a comfortable economic condition, the enjoyment is actually only being enjoyed by those belonging to the social “haves,” and not by the “have nots.”
Out there in the countryside, inflation has practically placed a monkey wrench on the lives of the people at a time when most need money for the school closing expenses. Consider the price of corn grit.
Not many months ago, No. 16 grit was priced at P22 a kilo, No. 14 at P20 a kilo and No. 12 at P18 a kilo. The other day, I learned that No. 16, the finest grit, was already P26 a kilo, the price of a kilo of rice. And rice? Well, the price ranges from P28-P32 per kilo.
The sad thing is that wages are not flexible. They remain constant, like in the case of oil where even if the price goes down, its price to consumers remains constant for sometime. Thus, in the town markets, when prices of consumer products go up, they stay there even if the inflationary trend has corrected itself. Right now, the price of meat has gone up, with fresh fish close behind, rising with an average P2 to P3 a kilo.
The other day I bought a loaf of wheat bread. Our doctor friend, Dr. Ophelia Buot, had asked me to have it for breakfast to prevent colon ulcer or cancer, and I have been having it for my breakfast in the past 15 or so years. The price last week was only P28 a loaf. When I started buying it years ago, the loaf was only P18. The other day, I paid P32 at the corner bakeshop, or a P4 increase at the wink of an eye.
When I took a taxi from the house to Channel 47 the other evening, the driver was complaining that while the price of gasoline has gone up again, taxi fare has remained the same. People, unless it is raining, he said, would rather walk or take the jeepney. They are skimping.
And he had to stop taking the family of a wife and three children to special Sunday lunch out with fried chicken at Plaza Independencia. His earnings could hardly meet the P10 daily allowances for his kids.
Time was when it was so relaxing to run to the countryside on weekends, enjoying not just young coconuts and young corn, broiled fresh fish and kinilaw, and even a dip in the nearby sea. Today, it doesn’t seem to be that enjoyable anymore when one hears the complaints of people about their belt tightening efforts to “make both ends meet.”
