THE COST OF LIVING IN PARADISE
by Donald Sevilla
How much does it cost to live in Bohol? Depending on your lifestyle, the answer is relative. Yet even though how hard you try to live simply still it is pretty darn expensive.
We’ve been hearing complaints regarding the high prices of food in our markets, groceries and vegetables, expensive utility bills and gas pump prices . While others are the result of a global phenomenon that brought us to these difficult times, some are the offshoot of long-standing lapses in our order of priorities.
We quickly jumped into the tourism bandwagon without having prepared for it thoroughly. Many of the problems we now face we brought it upon ourselves.
By opening our shores to the entry of foreigners, we have exposed our vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Take for example the cost of land and property in Panglao where decades ago, real estate prices in the millions were virtually unheard of.
But now it has become ridiculously prohibitive beyond the reach of ordinary people.The opposite is slowly becoming true where locals are now feeling like foreigners in their own land.
Competing with the purchasing power of strong foreign currencies against ours has wreaked havoc on the way we live. As a result almost everything has become expensive and we wonder what else can we afford.
While we were engrossed catering to our tourists and foreign visitors, we forgot our fisheries and agriculture. Our focus was on a vulnerable industry that we neglected the backbone of our local economy. When COVID struck this dependence on tourism was never more felt.
While tourism helped create jobs , it only truly benefited a few of our people. We can say that while it has earned substantial income for a lucky few it has not improved the lives of the majority.
This is the reality we have to live with, a daily struggle to survive brought about by our short-sightedness. So why is Bohol expensive? We are an island yet seafood prices are beyond our reach.
This much is ironic but the irony continues even more. We are blessed with arable land and adequate water resources yet we import farm produce elsewhere.
This remains a big challenge to our local leadership and to administrations past. That Bohol is expensive should not come as a surprise. We unwittingly led ourselves to this dilemma.
Yet however the words of our Bohol hymn resonate ever strongly. That Bohol is expensive and the land we cherish and love dearly has now become dear and pricey.