Fuel Fees Frustration

In the mornings, I switch between Unang Hirit & The Today Show to get both the Pinoy & American perspectives on their mornings. Since we have had this gas crisis for some time now, we’ve been seeing news about Americans complaining how high their gas prices have been (as if we don’t rant about it as well). However, as of today, the US average price per gallon is $4.114. I did a bit of number crunching with the following assumptions, and this is what I came up with:

Philippine unleaded price per liter: P59.57 (from observation)
Peso-dollar exchange rate: P45.660 = USD1.00
Gallon-liter conversion: 1 US gallon = 3.78541178 liter

So that’s (P59.57 / P45.660) x 3.78541178 = $4.939 per gallon in the Philippines versus $4.114 per gallon in the US.

Put it another way, ($4.114 x P45.660) / 3.78541178 = P49.62 per liter in the US versus P59.57 per liter in the Philippines.

So what the heck are they whining about? According to Slate, the US has one of the cheapest gas prices around! And here we are, barely a car country, paying for gas through the nose while working ourselves out for the same earnings.