Early sixties was the prime period. The seed sown after experiencing a world war resulted into a splendid period of development. Yes, there was corruption but much too less for the politicians of yesteryears compared to the much greedy that we have today. I pine for the good old days.
To the millenials and Gen Z, please take note. When I was still in shorts and was in the primary school, I was given on school days five centavos as my baon. Ten centavos were for the kids of well-off families. If ten centavos was given to me, that I can already consider luxurious. I can have special halo halo and a mamon to go along. Five centavos was fair enough, I can already have one boiled sweet potato and a hopiang mungo and a clean drink from the water pump in the school garden.
The daily wage was four pesos for ordinary workers. And with that four pesos, basic needs of a family of five or sometimes seven or eighth can be met. Only rich families owned televisions. And only them can afford cars and motorbikes. Only them can travel abroad. And traveling abroad in those years was big deal. Ordinary folks go to pintakasi on Sundays and the kids will be happy going to a movie even only once a month. Others only ‘once in a blue moon’.
The orchestra ticket for kids on movie houses in Angeles City was fifteen centavos and twenty five for adults. I never bothered in my youth how much the balcony ticket was priced. In the San Nicolas public market in Angeles, you can have a plateful of pancit luglog for ten centavos. Halo halo the same amount. There was a centimeter height limit for kids and were not collected fares on buses. The Angeles-Manila round trip ticket was eighty five centavos. There were no air conditioning among buses then. Two of the popular bus lines were La Mallorca Pambusco of the Enriquez family of Macabebe and San Fernando. Its main competitor on the road was the Philippine Rabbit Bus Lines of the Paras and Buan families of Tarlac. Fare was a lot cheaper when taking the government owned Philippine National Railway train that run from Damortis, La Union to Tutuban in Divisoria in Manila. It makes stops in Angeles, San Fernando and Malolos in Bulacan.
I paid one hundred five pesos as matriculation fee for one whole semester when I entered first year at College of Philosophy and Letters at the University of Sto. Tomas. That was in the sixties and Diosdado Macapagal was President. Our country had the second biggest economy in Asia. At forty pesos a month there was already board and lodging on a well appointed apartment around the so-called university belt in Manila. Me and five other friends stayed on what they called bed space room which was priced at fifty pesos per month. And the six of us shared less than ten pesos for the rent.
‘What can you buy at the present salary? You can only buy noodles, sardines. Fish like galungong became expensive too. The workers are fed up with promises coming from several agencies of government, particularly from the Department of Trade and Department of Agriculture. The promises of President Bongbong Marcos Jr. can’t appease the hue and cry of the workforce. The high prices of basic commodities will continue to rise because there are so many people in the present government who who are corrupt to the bones. Ang katakawan nila sagad sa buto.