Subsidizing commuters by squeezing drivers
Let’s be blunt — the fare hike suspension and free rides are not solutions; they are political comfort measures that push the cost onto the drivers.
Commuters get instant relief. The government gets goodwill. Drivers get… nothing.
Freezing fares while fuel prices are volatile is not protection; it is suppression. It forces drivers to absorb the rising costs just to keep the system running. And when they push back, they are met with free buses that quietly replace them on the road.
This is not balance. It is displacement.
The bigger question is why the burden keeps falling on the smallest players. The excise tax on fuel — long criticized for inflating transport costs — goes largely untouched, while drivers are expected to fill the gap between policy and reality.
Free rides may move people, but they also send a message: the system can function without you. This is a dangerous precedent. Because once drivers can no longer afford to operate, there will be no one left to replace. — Jason Mago
Paper boy
The Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) is shutting down, and no one feels anything. End of the month. Job done. Boxes delivered. Paper delivered. Cartons of it.
That, in the end, is what the ICI had become. A paper boy.
Hearings were held. Big names were thrown about. Martin Romualdez attended. Can’t forget that. Lawmakers came in and out. What did the public learn? Nothing.
Not enough teeth? Nope. All gums.
For a body created to investigate a multibillion-peso flood control scandal, the outcome is underwhelming.
More resignation headlines than arrests.
Nine referrals. Sixty-five names. And now, 200 “mega-boxes” handed over to the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice (DoJ.)
Which raises the obvious question: If those agencies can investigate on their own, what exactly was the ICI for?
To gather documents? To hold closed-door hearings? To buy time? Or to project the image of something being done?
The commission said it had fulfilled its mandate.
If this is what “fulfilled” looks like, then I might as well be the best writer in the world.
— Carl Magadia
In a hopeless place
While Filipinos are drowning in headlines of fuel price hikes and their domino effect on the local economy, the defining scandal of last year — the flood control corruption — has faded from view.
The government appears far from hopeful — crippled by inefficiency and brazen in-your-face deception.
The Independent Commission for Infrastructure is ending its operations by month’s end, claiming that it has fulfilled its mandate.
Those detained were contractors and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) engineers. No politicians. Among the many who were implicated, not a single “big fish” was caught — from Congress to the Senate to the Palace. Zero.
The ICI touted its accomplishments: turning over documents to the Ombudsman, recovering assets — tasks that agencies like the DPWH and Commission on Audit could perform. The ICI was clearly not created to deliver accountability but to shield those in power, who know how to play the game, who make committing crime easy, with the absolute confidence they will never be caught.
Hope seems difficult to find in the Philippines — but not impossible.
Today, public frustration grows as tensions in the Middle East send shockwaves through skyrocketing oil prices. The burden is not shared equally — some profit, while most suffer.
Real protection should have been in place long before any crisis — not just by suspending fuel taxes, but investing in renewable energy, building strategic petroleum reserves, and diversifying energy imports away from volatile regions.
There is inaction. A paralysis that feeds the perception of a government detached from the people it serves.
As long as those in power remain driven by self-interest and greed, the country risks staying exactly as it is — what many Filipinos have long described with bitter irony: rich in resources, robbed by corruption.
On Thursday, the peso slid to 60 against the dollar. While this benefits OFWs, it deepens the burden at home, driving inflation higher and making daily life more expensive.
The Philippines has long been known for having some of the happiest people in the world. Yet in this year’s global rankings, it fell to 57th place — far from Israel’s 8th spot despite facing war — and it’s not surprising why. — Vivienne Angeles