TAGUIG CITY (MindaNews / 15 April) — Right after my session with my rheumatologist, I did what many Filipinos did yesterday: I lined up at a fuel station for a full tank.

It was late afternoon. Traffic was still heavy. The line was not dramatic in the cinematic sense. It was more familiar than that. Cars inching forward. Drivers doing quiet math. People taking whatever relief they could get.

And relief did come, at least on paper.

Tuesday’s rollback was substantial: some oil firms cut diesel by as much as ₱23.00 per litre, gasoline by up to ₱6.50, and kerosene by as much as ₱11.50. But even then, the rollback did not erase the damage from the long run of increases that came before it. GMA noted these cuts were still not enough to offset 13 consecutive weeks of gasoline hikes and 15 straight weeks for diesel and kerosene.

That is why the public reaction was not exactly joy.

It was closer to this: Salamat, pero kulang pa.

That was the tone heard from many drivers and commuters too. GMA reported that public utility drivers welcomed the subsidy and discounts but still described them as inadequate. One driver put it plainly: it helps, but it is still not enough. At the same time, transport groups continued pressing protests over high fuel costs and broader structural issues like oil deregulation and fuel taxes.

Even the images told the story. Motorists queued in places like Paco, Manila ahead of the rollback, and news reports described drivers flocking to stations to take advantage of the lower prices. That is not the behaviour of a public that feels secure. That is the behaviour of a public trained by volatility to grab relief when it appears.

So what now?

Take the rollback. Be grateful for it. Use the breathing room.

But do not misread it.

A rollback is not recovery.

A lower pump price is not resilience.

A full tank is not peace of mind.

Because the real lesson of this crisis is not that prices can fall. We already knew that. The real lesson is how quickly families, drivers, and businesses can be pushed into anxiety when fuel shocks hit an import-dependent country like ours. Reuters reported that the government has already suspended taxes on kerosene and LPG and continues to study further measures, precisely because the pressure on households is still serious.

This is the part we should remember after the lines disappear.

We need a country that does not panic every time oil turns cruel.

We need stronger public transport, stronger food logistics, stronger energy planning, and stronger local contingency systems.

We need household budgeting habits that assume volatility is no longer occasional, but normal.

Yesterday, I lined up after seeing my doctor. That small sequence felt strangely Filipino: attend to your health, then attend to the next threat to your budget.

That is where many families are now.

Not in panic.

Not in comfort either.

Just in that familiar national posture of adjustment.

And maybe that is the sharpest What Now, Wednesday lesson of all:

The rollback helped.

But the line at the gas station said what official announcements could not.

People are relieved, yes.

They are not reassured.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Marriz B. Agbon is a Mindanawon now based in Taguig City, a chamber executive and development professional who previously led agribusiness promotion initiatives in government, working with private sector groups and chambers of commerce to strengthen regional economies. A graduate of the SBEP program of the University of Asia and the Pacific, he has spent much of his career at the intersection of business, policy, and enterprise development. In recent years, he has turned increasingly to writing – reflecting on aging, endurance sports, family history, and the quiet lessons of everyday life. He writes another column for MindaNews – “South of the 8th Parallel” – every Sunday.)