CHICKENPIEThe gas station had a "ROLLBACK" banner two weeks ago. Big red letters. The kind they usually put up for opening sales or election week. Jeepney drivers were taking selfies next to the price board.
They are not taking selfies today.
Diesel is up again. Kerosene too. Gasoline is doing what analysts call a "mixed adjustment," which means some of you are paying more and the rest of you are also paying more, just in different directions. The June 2 rollback — P9.26 a liter on diesel, gasoline down nearly P5 — turned out to be a gift, not a policy. A surprise bonus round in a game show no one signed up to play.
This is how Filipino fuel prices work. A P9 rollback gets announced and we share it like breaking news. A P5.77 hike gets announced and we just... absorb it. That's the trick. Losses and gains aren't felt equally — losing P5 hurts more than gaining P9 should feel good, which is why you'd expect the hike to sting harder. Except the sequence is reversed: the gift came first, so the hike arrives when you're already braced, already grateful, already doing math that makes the number seem okay. Oil companies didn't invent this. Casinos did.
Ang gagaling ng oil companies mag-marketing. The rollback does its job before the hike even shows up. You can't be fully furious about P5.77 when you're still somewhere grateful for that P9 cut. That's not arithmetic. That's emotional architecture. The hike lands softer because the gift was given first. Brilliant, really, if it weren't your money.
The jeepney driver doesn't get to choose when to feel what. He fills up when the tank is empty. He passes the cost on when he can get away with it — higher fare, shorter route. He absorbs it when he can't, which is usually. He's been doing this math since the 2008 price crisis. He's very good at it now. He just wishes he didn't have to be.
The DOE says supply is stable and reserves will last over 45 days. Good to know. Price is going up but the supply is fine. The house is on fire. But the smoke alarm is in good working order.
The "ROLLBACK" banner is still there. Sun-bleached now. It looks like hope from a previous news cycle. Optimistic the way things from two weeks ago always seem, when you're standing at the pump today.
