Panic buying: Motorists queue last night before huge price increase today

The news of a big fuel price increase prompted motorists last night to line up at the pump. The price of fuel goes up – Php 1.85 per liter of gasoline and Php 2.40 per liter of diesel – today, January 4, 2022.

As seen in this photo last night by motorist Leo Lirio, vehicles queued up for some 20 minutes to fuel up at this station in Imus, Cavite. This was also the scene in various pumps along Aguinaldo Highway last night as drivers rushed to fill up before going home after the first workday of 2022.

Others even considered driving up to areas like Cainta, Rizal where several fuel stations are known to charge Php 8 to 10 less than the average.

Oddly enough, this wasn’t the case in other areas as no lines were seen in San Juan, Marikina, and even at stations along SLEX.

A long queue of cars has been a rather "normal" sight in the last two years due to a variety of factors like the higher volume of drive thru take out orders, the RFID installation lines towards the tail end of 2020, or lately the long lines at COVID-19 testing centers.