IF INFLATION were “fiction” and prices of goods have remained constant – taking off from the year 1960 — the Philippines would have been an ideal place to live in. Wistful thinking, yes, but for the information of today’s millennials, let’s pretend it’s possible.
Today’s minimum wage earners earn a hundred times more money than those of half a century ago. A thousand pesos today could melt in a family visit to a restaurant. But if you are as old as I am, you will remember that the same amount could feed a family for six months or more in the 1960s!
In 1960, a copper centavo (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.
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-pesobaon took care of the house rental, food and shopping expenses.
One peso at that time was as strong as — or even stronger than — today’s 100 pesos. In fact, the rental rate for the two-storey apartment we were occupying on 23-A Dapitan St. was only P60 per month.
At that time, the minimum wage nationwide was four pesos a day or P120 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 was a mail sorter at the Manila International Airport post office at a daily wage of P6.
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 to edit Panay News, at that time a fledgling weekly.
The so-called PUs (small Minica taxi cabs) were still charging a flat rate of ten pesos for an inter-city ride. An overnight stay at Hotel del Rio cost only P120.
Times have changed. A bread winner making P15,000 a month can no longer cope with galloping prices. That amount could buy lesser goods than P120 in 1960.
The frequent increases in oil prices and corresponding taxes have triggered irreversible inflation, where individual income lags behind expenses.
The 12 percent value added taxes have been made more unbearable by the passage of Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act which imposes higher excise taxes.
No doubt our currency has lagged behind those of other Southeast Asian nations. Remember that when the so-called Asian crisis erupted in 1997, our peso slid from P20 to P26 against the US dollar.
Stagnant income has forced Juan dela Cruz to decrease consumption. He would buy a half kilo of meat instead of a kilo. He would cancel family vacation. He would no longer go to the movie houses.
More and more professionals fly abroad, leaving behind spouses and children.
I have a friend who used to thrive in manufacturing children’s clothes for export to Guam. Her business has closed as a result of competition from China-based manufacturers.
“Those were the days my friend,” so goes an old song, “we’d thought would never end.” (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
