Gas prices spike, curtains rise

ON a Friday night in Quezon City, the line outside the Smart AraneColiseum for TJ Monterde and KZ Tandingan’s four-night run stretches past the jeepney barker shouting “Cubao, Cubao.”

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Inside, the rig is already hung: trusses, LED walls, line arrays that will pull as much power as a small barangay. Three weeks earlier, diesel at the pump in nearby village ticked past P70 per liter — up from P48 weeks before — and a jeepney driver told a reporter he was gassing up four times a day, P250 for 3.33 liters at a time, because he could no longer afford a full tank. The same spike that squeezes the driver's margins is now working its way, quietly but relentlessly, through the country’s live shows, theaters and cinemas.The Philippines imports nearly all of its petroleum and when Brent flirted with $100 in early March after the escalation involving Iran, local pump prices jumped again — P1.90 per liter for gasoline and P1.20 per liter for diesel on March 3, with gasoline already P6.70 per liter and diesel P9.40 per liter higher year to date than during the same period in 2025. The government says there are roughly 50-60 days of gasoline and about 50 days of diesel in reserves; that buys time, not immunity.