Cebu City mulls subsidized fuel station at SRP, return of mobile markets

Aside from planning to set up a fuel station at the South Road Properties (SRP), the Cebu City government also plans to bring back the mobile markets in Cebu City as a way to have lower prices of farm produce or vegetables from mountain barangays. | CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City is bracing for the rising prices of commodities due to the rising price of fuel, which is affected by an imbalance in the global market.

The city is planning to put up a fuel station at the South Road Properties (SRP) that can sell fuel at a lower rate because the cost will be subsidized by the city government.

Disaster Chairperson, Lawyer Gerry Carillo, said that the city was planning to put up the fuel station at the SRP that was originally planned after Typhoon Odette, which was not pushed through then because the gasoline stations were able to sustain the demand.

Now, with no guarantee that the ongoing tensions between Ukraine and Russia will end soon, the city is concerned that the price of fuel will start to affect other industries.

Rhea Mae Quiño of the Department of Trade and Industries (DTI) in Cebu said during the Price Monitoring Council Meeting that there was no significant increase yet in the prices of commodities

After all, fuel only comprises 5 percent of the price components of products.

However, Quiño said that sardine companies were seeking a price increase because the tin cans were imported. The price of imported materials is expected to increase because of delivery expenses.

“Dili direct ang impact sa pagincrease sa fuel. Fuel is only 5 percent sa price component pero naay uban especially if imported ang source materials. Hopefully, dili ra kaayo dako ang increase,” she said.

(The impact of the increase in fuel prices is not direct. Fuel is only 5 percent of the price component but there are others especially if their source materials are imported. Hopefully, the increase will not be that much.)

Still, the city government wants to mitigate the looming economic crisis by providing affordable fuel to public utility vehicles, delivery services, and government-owned vehicles.

“We plan to put up a fuel station at the SRP that will have fuel lower by P5. Tanawon nato if kaya isubsidize sa city government especially sa atong mga public transportation like mga jeep,” said Carillo.

(We plan to put up a fuel station at the SRP that will have fuel lower by P5. We will see if we the city government can sustain this especially this is for our public transportation like the jeep.)

The city government is already looking for suppliers for this fuel station.

Carillo also said the city would be putting up some sort of mobile market at 20 barangays where goods from the farmlands in the mountain barangays would directly go.

“Gikan sa bukid diretso na sa barangay aron wala nay middleman. Kuhaon sa city gikan sa bukid ang utanon unya dalhun aning mga market aron ubos ra ang presyo,” said Carillo.

(From the mountains, we will bring the farm produce into the barangays so that there will be no middleman involved. The city government will get the vegetables from the mountains and bring these to the market so that the prices would be low.)

Mayor Rama said the city government would do what it could to help the residents through this economic situation.

Since the global market was out of the government’s hands, he assured the public that the city would find ways to reduce the impact of the situation.

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