MEDIUM RARE
Green mango, one piece, P50.
Mongo, P25 for ¼ kilo.
That was my dinner. Mongo with ampalaya leaves, main dish, and green mango (with bagoong relish) for dessert. The way to eat, like a peasant, on certain days.
At the rate food and fuel prices have been shooting up, what happens to the less privileged? Unlike me, it’s not a matter of choosing what they enjoy eating, it’s a matter of what they can afford to eat. In the time of coronavirus, with no heavy rains and the market flooded with vegetables and fruits, why are prices the way they are?
LPG prices have gone up P100 by the tank, and that was before news two days ago that prices would soar between P55 and P66 per tank. LPG, they say, is the poor man’s cooking fuel – a poor family can afford to cook their meals? They should stick to a diet of salads and fresh fruits – no cooking required – and live healthier lives, except we’re not talking about eating healthy, we’re talking about surviving on empty stomachs. For the middle class who are lucky to receive a monthly paycheck, the other kinds of fuel – gasoline and diesel – have been keeping pace. Last June 21, I paid P50 per liter for not-premium gasoline. Slowly but surely, it became P54.35 on the day the latest of five weekly price hikes was announced last Tuesday.
Sinigang or paksiw? It’s P80 for a kilo of kamatis, P180 for galunggong. (Remember the outcry when galunggong hit P90 during Cory’s time?) Ironically, carrots from China are cheaper than those grown in Benguet, but then the imported ones come with free formalin which, if consumed in the right quantity, will keep any corpse looking fresh.
With one week to go before candidates file their certificates of candidacy, voters who count their calories, pesos and centavos should demand from the loudest speechmakers where they stand on food, food security, food for future generations of Filipinos who even before the pandemic were being born stunted, malnourished, underweight. Food security was on the agenda of then National Security Adviser Roy Golez, but under Gen. Hermogenes Esperon it’s no longer on the table – maybe he has bigger fish to fry.