SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union (PIA) — Fuel prices continue to drop across the Ilocos Region, bringing relief to local transport workers and small vendors—not just at the pump, but in their daily earnings and spending power.
At the March 2025 Inflation Press Conference, Camille Carla U. Beltran, PSA Regional Statistical Services Office chief administrative officer, said the transport sector recorded a negative 1.6 percent inflation rate, contributing 26.7 percent to the region’s overall 2.1 percent inflation decline.
“This indicates that falling fuel prices significantly tempered the pace of price increases for other goods and services,” she said.
In La Union, gasoline saw the steepest price drop in the region, according to Danites E. Tenido, chief statistical specialist of PSA La Union.
“Gasoline registered a sharper decline in prices at negative 14.1 percent from negative 11.3 percent,” she said.
Irene P. Tactac, project evaluation officer at the Department of Agriculture (DA) 1, linked the trend to increased local harvests, which reduced the need for long-distance transport.
“With over 50 percent of planted rice areas already harvested by March, we anticipate increased supply in April and May, which may continue to keep fuel-related transport costs low,” she said.
Tricycle driver Randy O. Corpuz of San Juan, La Union, shared how the lower fuel prices are helping him at home.
“I can now bring home more groceries for my family because of the drop in gasoline prices,” he said.
Similarly, Michael Vinuya, a small-scale vegetable vendor from Bauang, said he is able to keep his prices steady for customers.
“I save over a hundred pesos a day. That means a lot for someone like me with only a small capital,” he said.
As fuel prices go down, livelihoods that rely on mobility—such as food delivery, public transport, and mobile vending—are slowly bouncing back.
The PSA encourages the public to monitor official data and take advantage of the lower costs to make smarter financial and operational decisions. (AMB/CCMT/AIHR, PIA Region 1)
