Manila: As he leaves home to start work at 7 a.m., Joseph Platilla no longer expects his wife and children to wait up for him to return. They may already be asleep while he is still driving passengers around Manila to earn his daily wage.
The change in his family’s routine started soon after the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which most of Asia’s energy supply transits, caused sharp rises in the cost of petrol, gas and diesel.
In the Philippines, where most of fuel comes from the Middle East, it was immediately felt as prices increased in the double digits.
“We don’t hear the explosions here, but we’re definitely feeling the effects,” Platilla said.
“It’s becoming really hard for people like me who use gasoline every day to earn a living. The price of gasoline has gotten really high. Before, it was around 54 pesos ($1). Now it’s around 71, and in some places it’s already 79. That’s regular gasoline. Diesel is already 99 pesos.”
