Once again, the city government of Biñan, Laguna has done it.
Other residents of Laguna province must have been green with envy when the city government, in the midst of Holy Week, eased the “penitensya” of its tricycle drivers by providing them with fuel subsidies.
It’s no surprise that the Biñan City LGU would once again extend its helping hand beyond thatwhich was required of its officials.
The Covid-19 pandemic of nearly six years ago has proved that its officials are willing (and able) to provide additional aid to those whose livelihoods have been hit hardest by crises.
Today, as we endure a different, yet potentially more severe crisis, “sana all” has been the mindset of those who now look to the city as a role model of sorts in Laguna province.
Why “sana all,” when the national government under President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. has pledged to provide all help to the transport sector who, ironically, now has to shoulder the additional burden of high oil prices and increased passenger demand?
The answer is simple: those pledges have remained, for the most part, simply pledges.
One particular complaint of transport drivers is that the national government has been slow to implement two key policies that would have eased their burden: the implementation of increased fares and the suspension of excise taxes on gasoline products.
Fuel subsidies and financial assistance is a good start, but as has always been pointed out by concerned sectors, the government must act beyond simple “ayuda.”
What we desperately need is a shift in our overall economic policies, policies that currently favor only the big businesses at the expense of the ordinary Filipino.
It’s laughable that it was one of these big business oligarchs – San Miguel Corporation (SMC) President and CEO Ramon Ang – who had promised not to take advantage of the situation and even offered to sell his oil firm to the government if it would help stabilize oil prices.
President Marcos, once again, has proved to be “wishy-washy” and “ningas-kugon” even in matters of life and death as this fuel crisis we’re facing. Good Lord!
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