[Philippines] LPG shows poverty now wears a woman's face

From INQ7

By Vincent Cabreza, Kate Pedroso

POVERTY wears a woman's face.

Many households in Metro Manila cannot afford liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or cooking gas, according to a survey conducted by the Center for Women's Studies (CWS).

Myrna, a government employee from Laguna province, now uses wood instead of LPG if she has to boil meat -- a task that takes more time and, therefore, consumes more fuel. That practice has allowed her to extend her LPG consumption to two months from one and a half months.

Fe, a manicurist from Laguna, finds it cheaper to buy her family's food from a nearby store. If she has to, she uses her LPG only for frying. The current LPG tank she uses was bought last December.

Mary Jane Guan, CWS executive director, said on Tuesday that the survey put a "woman's face" to the state of poverty in the country.

Speaking at a forum at the University of the Philippines Baguio, Guan said 39 percent of 200 mothers that the CWS randomly surveyed in January said they had abandoned LPG in favor of charcoal.

This finding has been validated by an increase in demand for clay stove burners in Metro Manila, she said. Other housewives in middle- and low-income households have started using wood and kerosene.

Guan said that for women LPG was the most relevant indication that the political crisis was the result of the actual economic condition and not due to the political opposition.

The LPG Industry Association of the Philippines confirms that LPG sales have gone down since last year.

"It started in May 2005 due to the continued price increase," said Mercedita Pastrana, executive director of the LPG industry association.

LPG prices, which hit the P500 level in mid-November last year, rose to P552 per 11-kg cylinder in Metro Manila at the beginning of March this year.

Currently, LPG is sold at P490 to P540 per 11-kg cylinder, an increase of more than 100 percent from its price in the same period in 2002.

LPG sales drop

"We really felt the drop. Nowadays, LPG can sell for as high as P560. We're living in tough times," said Bernardo Bolisay, president of the LPG Refillers Association of the Philippines.

Bolisay noted a drop in sales, which he said started in November 2005 with the imposition of the 10-percent expanded value-added tax. The VAT rate was raised to 12 percent last month.

In San Fernando City, Pampanga province, Best Gas Refilling Plant saw a 30-percent drop in sales in February compared to the sales of the same month last year, Bolisay said.

10-percent decline nationwide

Nationwide, the drop in LPG sales was about 10 percent, but the decline was greater in the Visayas and Mindanao, where alternative sources of energy abound, according to Pastrana.

She said consumers in Luzon may also have resorted to using kerosene or even charcoal.

One can cook meals for the day with just P10 to P20 worth of kerosene.

"But if we compute that, spending P20 a day will amount to P600 a month. A refill of an 11-kg LPG costs around P500," Pastrana said.

Because of the high cost of 11-kg LPG tanks, the Department of Energy is encouraging suppliers to offer cooking gas in tanks with capacities of as little as 1 kg. The small tanks will cost at a little more than P60.

Bolisay noted that people were resorting to charcoal, firewood or even coconut husk.

Peso's reduced purchasing power

Prices of basic goods and services rose by an average of 7.6 percent in February, the highest in eight months.

Guan said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's statements about a strong peso masked the reduction in the peso's purchasing power from 79.2 centavos in January 2005 to 74.2 centavos in January.

Guan said Ms Arroyo "has been ecstatic" about the peso's strength and the growth in portfolio investments.

But both indicators rely heavily on the health of the overseas Filipino market, Guan said. Remittances by overseas Filipino workers rose to $10.7 billion in 2005.

She said portfolio investments were not a reliable economic barometer because they do not directly result in new jobs as they are not injected into local industries.

These investments, according to Guan, are immediately withdrawn at the slightest hint of instability.

Vincent Cabreza is a correspondent of PDI Northern Luzon Bureau, while Kate Pedroso is from PDI Research