Road opens, oil soars: Who benefits?

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. opened the C5 Link on Monday cutting travel time to 15 minutes for 36,000 vehicles daily, just as diesel topped P100 per liter, leading commuters to ask: who can afford the faster roads?

The project was pitched as a solution to congestion and a boost to mobility, with the President underscoring its role in the government’s infrastructure push. It will also be toll-free in April to ease travel during Holy Week.

With fuel prices soaring, questions remain over who benefits from faster roads.

Diesel prices breached the P100 per liter mark in parts of the country after more than 10 consecutive weeks of increases, driven by global supply disruptions linked to the tensions in the Middle East.

Gasoline prices smashed through the P90 per liter barrier, with analysts projecting relentless hikes amid the Mideast-fueled crude volatility.

Even as supply is being secured, relief has yet to reach consumers.

Petron, which supplies roughly 30 percent of the country’s fuel and runs its only refinery, procured 2.48-million barrels of Russian crude to maintain its stocks until June, describing the situation as “precarious.”

The move followed the arrival of more than 700,000 barrels of Russian crude earlier this month, part of government-backed efforts to stabilize supply after disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil chokepoint.

Petron said the purchase was an “extraordinary emergency measure” after it exhausted other options, warning that failure to secure more crude could trigger shortages, price spikes, and widespread economic disruption.

Malacañang has insisted the country is experiencing a “price disruption,” not a supply crisis, even as it declared a national energy emergency and rolled out financial support for key sectors.

Still, with prices continuing to climb despite fresh oil supplies, the benefits of the new road capacity may not be achieved.

For motorists, faster travel could mean lower fuel consumption per trip. But for many, the cost of fuel itself remains the bigger burden, offsetting any savings from the reduced travel time.

The contrast highlights a growing tension: infrastructure designed to move more vehicles, and an energy reality that is making mobility increasingly expensive.

As 36,000 vehicles are expected to pass through the new link daily, the question remains whether the gains will be felt most by ordinary commuters — or by industries tied to fuel consumption in a market where prices continue to rise.