ALABEL, Sarangani (MindaNews / 14 February) – For residents of Sarangani, do you know that your “piso” or one peso in 2018 has a buying power of only 75 centavos nowadays.
Yes, you read it right.
Based on the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority – Sarangani (PSA Sarangani), the purchasing power of peso (PPP) in the province has been continuously declining from seven years ago.
The PPP refers to the “real value” of the peso in a given period relative to a chosen reference period, it explained.
Ismael Ramos Jr., PSA Sarangani chief statistical specialist, said that the PPP in the province has been decreasing an average of 0.03 centavo annually from 2018 to 2025.
Last December, the PPP in Sarangani decreased to P0.75 centavos from the previous month, PSA-Sarangani data showed.
“This implies that a peso in 2018 is only worth 75 centavos in December 2025, or you need P133.20 to purchase the same volume of goods and services that cost P100 in 2018,” Ramos said.
The PPP is inversely related to inflation rate, which means that as the inflation rate increases, the PPP declines, he said.
In December 2025, the headline inflation rate in Sarangani rose to 2.1 percent from 0.3 percent in December 2024, according to PSA-Sarangani data.
Headline inflation rate measures changes in the cost of living based on movements in the prices of a specified basket of major commodities (i.e. food and non-alcoholic beverages; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels; etc.). Headline inflation refers to the annual rate of change or the year-on-year change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Ramos said the uptrend in the province’s inflation rate in December 2025 was primarily brought about by the annual increase in the index of food and non-alcoholic beverages at 3.0 percent from 1.0 percent in November 2025.
This was followed by the faster annual increment in the index of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels at 2.3 percent in December 2025 from 2.1 percent in the previous month, he added.
In contrast, lower inflation rates were observed in the indices of alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 3.7 percent, and personal care and miscellaneous goods and services at 2.2 percent from their respective year-on-year inflation rates at 4.5 percent and 2.4 percent in November 2025, the statistician said.
But the PSA’s PPP in Sarangani seemed way far undervalued from the actual buying power of residents, particularly food items in the public market.
Beth Ramos, a resident of the coastal town of Maitum, which is some 2.5 hours away from the capital Alabel, lamented the soaring prices of fruits and vegetables in the “laray” market.
Held every Thursday for years already, laray serves as a venue for small itinerant vendors to sell fresh farm and fisheries products and other basic commodities at the downtown proper.
A regular laray patron, Ramos (no acquaintance with Ramos the PSA-Sarangani statistician), posted a photo Thursday of what she bought from the marketplace.
“Eto na yung nabibili ng P1,000 mo na one year ago ay P500 lang (This is what your P1,000 can buy which last year costs only P500),” she posted on her Facebook account.
Her friend, Lovely Irma, commented: “Yes … mahal na lahat … kahit saan (Yes, everything is expensive anywhere).”
Beth Ramos lamented the skyrocketing prices of goods in the laray market.
According to her, a bunch of string beans, for example, sold before at P10 now costs P25.
“We must spend more prudently now than before. Survival is the game,” she told MindaNews in mixed Filipino and English.
Sarangani has been among the 10 most impoverished provinces in the Philippines, climbing out of the list at 11th spot only in the first quarter of 2023, PSA data showed. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
