Cash handouts, fare hikes as Philippines battles soaring fuel costs

Hundreds of Philippine tricycle drivers lined up on Tuesday in Manila for cash handouts they hope will provide temporary relief from a war-driven surge in fuel prices that has left the country scrambling for short-term answers.



Since United States-Israeli strikes on Iran triggered the Middle East war last month, the archipelago nation has implemented a four-day work week for civil servants, seen ferry schedules reduced in some areas and begun eyeing the possibility of Russian oil imports.



As the drivers awaited their handouts on Tuesday, officials unveiled a series of price hikes across a range of local transportation, including the ever present smoke-belching jeepneys millions of Filipinos rely on to get to work each day.



But the increases did not extend to the country's hundreds of thousands of tricycle drivers, who earn money by carrying passengers down narrow, winding alleys on small motorbikes and carriages.