A consumer looks back to the good old days

By Herbert Vego

 

THE PHILIPPINE Statistics Authority (PSA) recently came up with a report that, primarily due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our economy had contracted more than expected in the first quarter.

Are we now experiencing recession or a period where businesses see less demand and begin to lose money even while prices rise? You see, pork prices in Metro Manila have gone up to more or less four hundred pesos per kilo.

We personally know of people who, having lost their jobs, could no longer afford to buy three square meals a day. Thanks to the community quarantines, they have found a way to get by on donated foodstuff.

Call it wishful thinking, but if it were possible to go back to the past, I would revisit it on a time machine. A small amount of money then would go a long way.

If only inflation were “fiction” and prices of goods have remained constant, we would not be so hungry.

I, now 71 years young, am writing this for sheer information and entertainment of the present generation.

Based on the amount of money, today’s minimum wage earners earn a hundred times more than those 60 years ago. But a thousand pesos today could melt in a family visit to a restaurant. Whereas the same amount could feed a family of six for six months in the 1950s and ‘60s! As to why, let us see.

In that period, a one-centavo copper coin (one inch in diameter) could buy a piece of wrapped candy; five centavos, two pieces of pan de sal; ten centavos, a bottle of soft drink or a ten-kilometer jeepney ride; and a peso, a big can of corned beef.

Believe it or not, coins denominated 10, 20, 50 centavos and one peso were made of silver.

I was 10 years young in 1960 when our parents took us four kids to Quezon City for a two-month summer vacation. Our two-hundred-peso baon took care of the house rental, food and shopping expenses.  At that time, the minimum wage nationwide was only four pesos a day or P120 per month.

Therefore, one peso was stronger than today’s 100 pesos. In fact, the rental rate for the two-level apartment we were sharing with another family on 23-A Dapitan St. was only P60 per month.

The second time I went to Manila to pursue college education in 1967, prices were still very affordable even if the minimum wage had increased to P180.  While studying, I got employed as a mail sorter at the Manila International Airport post office at P6 per day.

In the 1970s, even when President Ferdinand Marcos had already declared martial law, the economy was still relatively strong because price increases were infrequent and would be met with salary increases. With a wife and a baby boy, I made both ends meet as a freelance journalist in Manila.

I abandoned Metro Manila life in 1981 for a cheaper lifestyle in Iloilo City, where the so-called PUs (small Minica taxi cabs) were still charging a flat rate of ten pesos for an inter-city ride.

If prices have not changed, a breadwinner making P15,000 a month today could save money and cope with emergency situations.

“Those were the days my friend,” so goes an old song, “we thought they’d never end.”

 

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THE TRUTH BEHIND CITY BROWNOUTS

BROWNOUTS in Iloilo City are dictated by our need to stay safe and the power distributor’s commitment to upgrade its facilities.

That was how Engr. Leomel “Bong” Tambanillo, head of MORE Power’s system and planning department, explained the occurrence of power outages to broadcaster Neri Camiña and this writer on the program “Tribuna sang Banwa” on Aksyon Radyo last Sunday (12:15 to 1:15 p.m.).

The “scheduled” and “unscheduled” brownouts refer to either intentional electricity cut-off for maintenance or triggered by accidents and other unforeseen circumstances, respectively. In the latter case, failure of the power distributor to respond could cause fatal accidents.

Tambanillo recalled that when MORE Power took over from the previous distribution utility last year, all of its high-voltage substations were in poor working conditions.  And so they had to spend a predetermined number of hours overhauling them. Otherwise, they would eventually conk out beyond rehabilitation.

Scheduled brownouts, usually on Sundays, are announced in media and on MORE Power’s Facebook page.

Tambanillo revealed that major repairs would take at least two years to finish. By then, the entire distribution utility would have performed in excellent working condition. Such a seemingly long time is short when viewed against the fact that, of the 15,000 primary posts throughout the city, at least 5,000 have to be replaced with concrete ones. Moreover, thousands of meters of rusting or undersized GI wires, being hazardous, would have to be replaced with durable and thicker aluminum wires.

As Bong was telling this, I could not help but wonder about the expenses that the company must have incurred in its first year of operation.  A single concrete post costs P30,000. With 5,000 posts to be replaced, that would entail a cost of Php 150 million already.

Unscheduled outages or trip-offs could also be caused by power thieves and saboteurs. They can now be easily detected with the help of paying customers who report irregularities and hazardous situations.  Whenever they see danger signs like tree trunks brushing against the power lines or poles leaning and crossbars on the verge of breaking down, they call the attention of MORE personnel.

Bong Tambanillo compared the power network to a human body where, whenever an organ is diseased, the heart and several other organs suffer also.

No wonder, as MORE Power President Roel Z. Castro was telling us in the media, “We are prepared to spend at least P1.9 billion to rehabilitate all the bulok facilities of the distribution utility.”

How about us customers? Are we prepared to pay our bills on time?