A heavy cross to bear

The worsening non-crisis is giving new meaning to pasyon and penitensiya this Holy Week.

Transport fares to the provinces have surged. The government can crack down on bus companies and other registered mass transport services that prematurely raise their fares. But there are numerous operators of kolorum or informal transport that are popular for their “door-to-door” specialized services, and their fares are pegged to current fuel prices. These fares have surged, take it or leave it.

To avoid stress from eye-watering fuel prices, those with no family reunions to attend in the provinces are staying put in Metro Manila.

As in the COVID years, I’m canceling out-of-town Visita Iglesia, and will instead limit my trips to those near my home (there are several that are traditionally among the most visited during Holy Week). I’ll just prepare Easter lunch with my relatives at my home.

I’m sure I’m not the only one doing this. It’s bad news for our travel industry, which was already being left behind by our Southeast Asian neighbors even before this non-crisis started.

Holy Week is traditionally peak travel season in this country. But a TV5 report yesterday, based on interviews with players in the affected sectors, said tourism is down by about 50 percent in the nation’s summer capital, Baguio City.

Maybe the slowdown won’t be dramatic. According to reports, passenger traffic is still high, whether by land, air or sea mass transport. Many flight tickets and accommodations were booked in advance and paid for based on pre-Middle East war rates.

Holy Week vacations are typically planned weeks or even months ahead, and stiff fines are slapped for cancellations. For many, it’s also a once-in-a-year opportunity to reunite with their loved ones in the provinces. They are willing to pay more so as not to waste the opportunity.

As for Easter meals, even cooking has been affected by the fuel non-crisis. With LPG prices spiking, I’m cutting down on slow cooking or baking these days in gas-fired appliances. Instead I’m using electric ovens and charcoal grills.

*      *      *

There’s that popular admonition to never let a good crisis go to waste. It’s a test of leadership; it separates the men from the boys. A month into the Middle East war, the perception is that President Marcos is squandering this crisis big time, starting with his refusal to call it a crisis.

That special powers law is a dud, like his anti-corruption campaign that seems to be fading into oblivion, like the Independent Commission for Infrastructure.

Ayuda can only go so far, as even drivers who have received their fuel subsidy have sighed. They need sustainable relief forthwith – at the pumps.

The angry, irreverent joke this Holy Week is that come Easter Sunday, Jesus Christ would have died and risen, and we would still have weeks of waiting for fuel excise taxes to be suspended or cut. It’s leading to calls for the suspension not just of the excise tax but also of the 12 percent value-added tax (VAT) on petroleum products.

This long wait for relief from high fuel prices is reinforcing the image of weakness and indecisiveness long used by the Duterte camp to describe BBM.

Super Typhoon Yolanda did this to Noynoy Aquino during his presidency. PNoy’s dazed response to the catastrophe, compounded by his insensitive remarks to a survivor (“eh buhay ka pa naman, di ba?”) cemented impressions of his administration as being tone-deaf and elitist, and of PNoy himself twiddling his thumbs.

That twiddling image even gave rise to the term “Noynoying.” And the impressions of indecisiveness helped propel to power Rodrigo Duterte, who projected himself as an action man of the masses. That Duterte brand is now being used by his daughter in her announced bid for the 2028 presidency. So there’s a lot at stake for the Marcos-Romualdez clan in the way BBM deals with what he prefers to describe as a national energy emergency.

If there’s a state of emergency, there are provisions in the Constitution that BBM can cite so he can act swiftly and decisively on fuel taxes. But instead of listening to the agonized cries of millions of people for relief now, not two or three more weeks from now, he seems to be listening to the VAT and excise tax defenders in his administration.

BBM’s camp may consider the criticisms unfair, but the flak is coming not only from the Duterte diehard supporters. Everyone is feeling the weight of this non-crisis.

This Holy Week, BBM should avoid being seen as part of the heavy cross that the nation must bear.

*      *      *

Requiem: Lent is also a time for pondering our mortality. After all, the season starts with the reminder on Ash Wednesday that from dust we came, and to dust we shall return.

I bid goodbye to our former sports editor, Lito Tacujan. “Tacu J” passed away while enjoying his favorite sport, right there on the golf course. Not bad for someone who battled debilitating illnesses that he bemoaned drained his life savings.

Lito was renowned for his lyrical sports writing, but we also miss his wit and sublime sense of humor, which brought joy to our story conferences in the newsroom. He would’ve found humor even in our current fuel pasyon at penitensiya.

Farewell, and see you later, Tacu J!