{"id":555208,"date":"2026-03-21T15:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T15:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/555208\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T15:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T15:49:14","slug":"philippine-fuel-prices-hit-record-highs-as-food-inflation-fears-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/555208\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippine fuel prices hit record highs as food inflation fears grow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Mario Orain used to earn his living on the road. Now, the 51-year-old driver spends most of his time parked up, waiting for bookings that rarely come.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cIt\u2019s really bad,\u201d he told This Week in Asia. \u201cThere are very few bookings. And fuel prices have gone up a lot. It\u2019s very expensive now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With diesel prices in <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/philippines?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the Philippines<\/a> shattering record highs amid the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/us-israel-war-iran?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">war on Iran<\/a>, transport workers like Orain are being forced off the road as they face a stark choice between filling their tanks or feeding their families.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">After weeks of increases, diesel breached the triple-digit mark for the first time on Tuesday \u2013 with the Department of Energy warning of prices as high as 114 pesos (US$1.90) per litre in Metro Manila, nearly one-sixth of the minimum daily wage rate for non-agricultural workers in the Philippine capital.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The price surge forced some petrol stations to improvise after the figures exceeded the two-digit capacity of their digital display systems. It also exposed a long-standing vulnerability.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A petrol station in Quezon City, the Philippines, shows diesel prices written on pieces of paper on Thursday as its digital board was not designed to accommodate the number of digits. Photo: AP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0990d1bc-b25f-4243-a49b-0257ca6e5cfb_87fcc2ff.jpg\" title=\"A petrol station in Quezon City, the Philippines, shows diesel prices written on pieces of paper on Thursday as its digital board was not designed to accommodate the number of digits. Photo: AP\"\/>A petrol station in Quezon City, the Philippines, shows diesel prices written on pieces of paper on Thursday as its digital board was not designed to accommodate the number of digits. Photo: AP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cUnlike some neighbouring countries, the Philippines has limited domestic refining capacity, which means local prices quickly reflect movements in global crude and refined product markets,\u201d said Carlo Asuncion, chief economist at the Union Bank of the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mario Orain used to earn his living on the road. Now, the 51-year-old driver spends most of his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,274237,5517,164,274239,69504,130870,274238,274241,274234,274240,49035,274235,12241,274236,277,143126],"class_list":["post-555208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-carlo-asuncion","tag-diesel","tag-economy","tag-excise-taxes","tag-filipinos","tag-fuel-prices","tag-ibon-foundation","tag-jeepneys","tag-john-paolo-rivera","tag-lalamove","tag-manila","tag-mario-orain","tag-middle-east","tag-paul-caneda","tag-philippines","tag-strait-of-hormuz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}