As the summer season starts this April, the people of Catanduanes will likewise begin feeling the effects of the spiraling cost of fuel on basic commodities.
On the first day of the month, seven manufacturers in the country are set to increase the prices of some of their products, including bottled water, home care products, candies and noodles.
According to an official of the Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association Inc., the price adjustment is due to the higher cost of distribution, shipping and tracking.
Local supermarkets and groceries are already anticipating the markup in the commodities, from vegetables to canned goods and other necessities that are transported from Manila and other areas.
One grocery operator told the Tribune that the cost of transporting commodities from Manila to Virac has gone up from the previous P19,0000 to the latest high of P29,000 per one-way trip.
The cost already includes the wages and food of the truck driver and helpers, fuel, port charges and ferry rates for rolling cargoes.
That 50 percent markup in the transportation and handling cost would likely be passed on by the local supermarket operator to their consumers.
Cooked food will also be more expensive as restaurants, fast food outlets and even carinderias and turo-turo stalls wrestle not only with higher cost of meat, fish and other food items but also cooking gas.
This April 8, 2026, another cost adjustment will be borne by local businesses, big and small alike.
On that day, the first tranche of Wage Order No. RBV-23 for private sector workers in the Bicol region will take effect.
This will increase the minimum wage rate in all sectors and industries in the region by P20 from the current P435 to P455 per day.
For each employee, this would entail an additional P400 weekly for a five-day work week. For many small businesses with an average of 10 workers, the proprietor would need to pay an extra P4,000 every month.
And on December 1, 2026, the second tranche will be implemented, an additional P25 per day raised the minimum wage to P480 per month.
All business operators would have to shell out from their pockets an additional P500 per worker to comply with the law.
In next few months, power consumers in the Catanduanes island grid will experience successive increases in electricity rates as SUWECO would likely ask for higher rates to cushion the impact of the runaway cost of diesel which runs its gensets.
As of last month, only one of SUWECO’s two hydroelectric power plants is operational and it delivers only 1 megawatt of electricity or less than 30 percent of its total dependable capacity from the renewable source.
Combined with the 0.80mW being produced by NPC’s Balongbong HPP, the three hydro power plants is able to bring only 1.8 mW of electricity to the grid or just a third of its total net dependable capacity.
The possibility of rotating brownouts by mid-summer has triggered a buying spree for solar panels and batteries, with the several solar power system installers scrambling to secure supplies before the same equipment becomes more expensive.
April, May and the next “habagat” months will bring with it not only searing heat but also rising tempers as islanders try to cope with inflation and the certainty that even more suffering is ahead if the war against Iran continues.
This Holy Week celebration, may the people realize that everyone needs to do something, aside from praying for the Middle East conflict to end, to reduce dependence on ‘imported’ food, fuel and electricity.