The PHP 10 that could sink Guimaras

There is something deeply unfair about living on an island where a 15-minute boat ride is your only way to work, school, or a hospital — and someone else gets to decide how much that ride costs without even telling your mayor.

That is what happened in Guimaras. The Guimaras Island Transport Multi-Purpose Cooperative (GITMPC) filed a petition with the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) to raise motorboat fares from PHP 30 to PHP 40 for the crossing between Jordan and Iloilo City. The discounted fare for students, seniors, and persons with disabilities would jump from PHP 24 to PHP 32 — a 33 percent increase on the people least equipped to absorb it. The nighttime rate would rise to PHP 45.

Gov. Ma. Lucille Nava, all five of the province’s mayors, and Rep. Joaquin Carlos Rahman Nava have closed ranks against the proposal. Their argument is simple and hard to dispute: this route is not a luxury. It is the daily lifeline for workers, students, traders, and patients who have no land-based alternative. And the cooperative pushing for the hike did not bother to consult the local government or present the data to justify it.

Do the math. A PHP 10 one-way increase means PHP 20 more per round trip. For a daily commuter, that is roughly PHP 520 a month — gone, just like that. The current minimum wage in Western Visayas sits at PHP 550 per day for larger establishments, or about PHP 14,346 monthly. A family of five in Guimaras needs at least PHP 12,853 a month just to cover basic food and non-food needs, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. That PHP 520 monthly addition is not pocket change. It is the margin between getting by and falling short. For families with two or three commuters, multiply accordingly.

And the province has been making real progress. Guimaras’ poverty incidence dropped from 10 percent in 2021 to 6.5 percent in 2023, the second lowest in the region. A fare hike of this scale threatens to claw back those gains for the 12,380 Guimarasnons still living below the poverty line.

What makes this worse is the process — or the lack of it. Jordan Mayor John Edward Gando said GITMPC never consulted the municipal government, even though Jordan Wharf falls under its jurisdiction. The municipality issues their business permits. It maintains the facility. It even cut GITMPC docking fees by 50 percent — from PHP 30 to PHP 15 — on its own initiative. And this is how the cooperative reciprocates: by filing for a fare increase behind the LGU’s back, without presenting empirical cost data to the public.

Under Republic Act 9295, MARINA is supposed to ensure that rates on monopolized routes are “just and equitable,” considering the economic impact on the communities served. If MARINA approves this petition without requiring open-book accounting and mandatory public consultation, it fails that mandate. If operators can pocket LGU subsidies and still demand higher fares from captive commuters, something is structurally broken in how we regulate lifeline maritime routes.

Guimaras is not saying no to any fare adjustment, ever. It is saying: show us the numbers, talk to our leaders, and prove the necessity. That is not an unreasonable demand. It is the bare minimum. MARINA should deny or defer this petition and use it as a starting point — not just for this route, but for a framework that treats island crossings like the public utilities they actually are.