Pabili po ng load!

About a month ago, my colleagues and I had an immersion trip to Nueva Ecija. We wanted to reach the different community learning centers to get to know better how things are with the informal learning system in that place.

More than the anticipation of meeting the out-of-school youth and mature learners, getting to where they make up half of the excitement. We spread out to six towns, some of which were quite remote that you had to drive a couple of hours from the local city then take a 30-minute “kuliglig” ride. The sights were breathtaking. The view of the Sierra Madre Mountains just won’t let us be but I wasn’t complaining.

A few nipa huts and the occasional sari-sari stores dotted the roadsides. I noticed one thing that made me check my mobile phones for signal. True enough, there WAS signal, even in this remotest place at the foot of the mountains. So what made me check my mobile phones? Almost all of the sari-sari stores had a very familiar sign which says “Load here!”. Which made me vaguely recall a news item I recently heard on TV with a lawmaker proposing to declare cell phone load as a basic commodity, thus placing it under price regulation.

When one says basic commodity, this refer to items that most people can’t live without. In the Philippines this includes rice, non-formula milk, coffee and instant noodles. Seeing a small sari-sari store in some far-flung town in the rural areas made me think that perhaps e-load is now something most Pinoys can’t live without.

Perhaps we could look at some practical criteria that make an item a basic commodity so we can see if indeed e-load is a necessity.

Basic commodities are the staples that each Filipino family must have everyday to survive – Although not all families are able to afford to have these commodities all at the same time, for them to live another day, they must at least have one or two items on the list, notwithstanding limited or no income at all.
Basic commodities are necessities especially in times of calamities, natural or otherwise – During typhoons of devastating scale, the Department of Trade and Industry is quick to enforce price control of these basic commodities, the obvious reason being more of these goods are required to provide for affected families. These basic necessities tide them over until things get back to normal.
Basic commodities are easily available everywhere and anywhere – Being necessities, it is essential that these commodities can easily be bought, even in the hinterlands.

Now, if only for these criteria, we can safely surmise that e-load has now become a basic commodity. Why?

By end of 2008, mobile phone penetration in the Philippines has reached 75%, according to the ICT Statistics Newslog. By that time, 52% of Filipinos have rated themselves as being below the poverty line. So for 23% who think of themselves as extremely poor, they still saw it necessary to own a mobile phone and to have access to mobile communication services.

The Ondoy experience readily comes to mind when thinking how important communication has become, especially during calamities. Friends, family members, local authorities and even the national government were apprised of the situation of those affected either through mobile calls or through text messages. Calls for rescue were made through cell phones as landline services had already failed. The cell phone easily became a source of comfort during these times when those hit felt like it was the end of the world.

As my opening anecdote has illustrated, e-load has now become easily available, whether you’re in the mountains or some remote island.

This may be such a simplistic approach to the question. I am sure that if and when e-load will be seriously considered a basic commodity, the discussions are bound to get technical at the very least. But, if I may be bold enough, I believe e-load should already be considered a basic commodity. The National Telecommunications Commission may already be imposing some kind of regulation on mobile service fees based on existing laws, but perhaps it needs further regulation. The telecommunications companies are able to work around these regulations by some value-added services, but not really by reducing costs. These value-added services (like overnight unlimited calls and texts) just multiply their income further since these lure the consumers to load bigger amounts more often, thinking that they are actually saving on their usage.

I have both postpaid and prepaid lines. I am aware that those who subscribe to postpaid lines are given the “incentive” of lower call and text rates, still depending on the monthly service fee. I understand, however, that not all who own cell phones could afford a monthly postpaid line, so, as it has always been, those who could only afford the “sachet” retail of prepaid load actually end up spending more for every text they send and every minute of call they make. So where is the justice there?

And now that the mobile phone has already reached the indispensable status it is currently enjoying among Filipinos of all social strata, I can just imagine how the telecommunications companies are smiling wider and wider all the way to the bank. So for social justice, in my simplistic frame of mind, I propose that e-load be now declared a basic commodity.

I could only presume that the widespread penetration of mobile phone use is the result of the “hard work” the telecom companies have put in to try and make their services reach every corner of the country. I just wonder how they would react if the DTI puts e-load in the list of basic commodities, thus subjecting it to price control.

Photo: “familly in sari sari store” by Burgermac, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved

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* The author is a single mother to two beautiful daughters. She is a communications and marketing professional who, until recently, has never believed she is a serious writer. She believes, though, that her regular creative outlet has been in finding happy, unconventional ways of raising her children and making the most out of her meager resources.

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