Five Hours in Line to Get 10 Liters of Gas
I mentioned in my last article how we were already running out of gas and cash four days after the storm hit the country. Bohol was severely affected and after what had happened, locals started to panic. This article was written a week after Typhoon Rai's (Odette) visit.
According to our family friend, Tagbilaran is okay, it has a mobile signal and internet access. When we heard about that, my husband and I immediately decided to go to the city to withdraw funds and also top up our tank with fuel.
While we had visited the city on Saturday, things had escalated quite fast and so this time around, we had seen many Boholanos in line, waiting for their turn in long queues to get their needs, may it be cash or gas.
It was almost four in the afternoon on Monday when we reached the city. The heat of the sun was quite different, perhaps it was because there are lesser trees now, there are many parts of the road which are still blocked by several trees and lamp posts being down, many locals were still clearing the road. Every town shows how they were severely affected by the typhoon and it's sad to see roofs being blown away, windows and walls torn, and even heartbreaking are the many huge trees being pulled out. Bohol looked different.
As we move from town to town, we noticed that there were already queues in different gas stations but there were even more stations which were closed! Gas was running out!
But as we reached the city, our first goal was to withdraw but we found a long queue too in every ATM! My husband went in line for the BPI machine while I went to an RCBC machine.
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Four, five, six, it was almost seven when my husband reached the machine. I, on the other hand, wasn't able to get any cash, the machine went on offline mode, perhaps it was already out of cash!
While waiting for my husband, I am glad there were fast-food restaurants around, we ordered a meal in Jollibee for dinner and I was in search of bottled water too but failed. Tagbilaran City was out of distilled, or even mineral water! I can't believe it! I asked several strangers about it and they confirmed that this mall ran out of bottled water already!
Thankfully, my mother was with us, being a senior citizen, she was a priority in the restaurant so we got our food ready before my husband was able to get cash. Also, there was bottled water, small ones in Jollibee so my mother bought more than we needed for that meal so we can bring it to my sister-in-law's house where we will be staying that night.
Our next goal now that we have cash withdrawn was gas. But mind you, the machine can only dispense 10,000 pesos every transaction and a maximum withdrawal amount of 20,000 so we ended up using three ATM cards just so we could get more cash. My father needs more because he has to pay the construction worker's pay that week.
On the way to my sister-in-law's house, we passed by a gas station that had a not too long queue so my husband dropped us at the house and went to line up. He was there from seven in the evening until nine and he failed to get gas. According to him, the owner decided not to give those who were in line because some motorcycle owners were inserting and he can't trace who's first as it was dark.
So the next option was another station nearby the Camella home's neighborhood. This branch opens at 8:30 AM but my husband was already in line by 5:00 AM, he was car number 15.
There's also a free charging station there so it was convenient that by 8:30 AM, we were also there charging our devices. My husband was saving his gas, he only had 2 bars left and then we found out this station can only give 10 liters per vehicle!
Nonetheless, we still stayed in line, by 10 AM, we were accommodated, I can't believe it took us five long hours for us to get 10 liters of gasoline.
We were exhausted so decided to just rest a bit. After lunch, we headed to the ATM again to get cash while my husband went to another gas station that allows full tank top-ups. This took us another two hours in line for the ATM and three hours for the gas.
It took us a lot of time in line and we decided not to go home that day again because we were very tired. This was the most exhausting cash withdrawal we had ever experienced and yet on our third day in the city, the case was still the case. I hope that the situation will be better soon.
After these experiences, I have realized several things. One was that Boholanos are patient. While in line, people are just waiting, no one dared to complain about the slow movement, they even cheered each other when someone was able to get the cash.
Then on the gas stations, we noticed, no one blew their horns while in line, even the line for those who needed gas in their hand-carried gallons endured standing for hours! I can't imagine myself being there under the sun.
Hard times indeed but I am hopeful this won't last long. According to the workers at the station, the tankers are already on their way, they were just stuck because some areas where they are allowed to pass were blocked by fallen lamp posts and trees.
As the new year comes, I pray that the terrible things that had happened in 2021 will be washed away but it would surely be hard most especially to those who were severely affected. But I hope that with calendar flipping its pages, Bohol and the neighboring provinces can now move on.
J U N E B R I D E
Boholana | Cebu | Philippines | Travel | Photography Enthusiast | Calligraphy | Art
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Wow so sorry to hear what you and others are going through there such king queues for essential things
But inspiring to read how resilient and patient the people are in such trying circumstances
May the New Year be a great year for you and yours
Thanks for joining Wednesday Walk :), I truly enjoy exploring the world virtually each Wednesday seeing walks from all around the globe and feeling I am there and experiencing it all myself, such as I did in your post just now :)
Oh no! That is hard. But take heart Sis. I do hope that this new year will be better for all of us. Sa mga nasalanta sa bagyo. Makakabangon tayo.