Mobil and Shell Marianas, which is expected to follow suit, raised their gas prices seven times from January to April.
This is Mobil’s eighth time to increase its prices this year. The price of its diesel went up yesterday from $5.21 to $5.31.
Gas attendant Chester Paul Deleon said drivers unaware of the price increase always yell at him for not telling them about it.
He said many of their customers would ask him to tell his boss to “please inform us in advance so we can prepare.”
Some people upset about the price hike tend to scold gas attendants as if they were the ones responsible for it, he added.
Regina C. Torres, a legislative staffer, said it’s time to use a bicycle.
She does not have her own car, but she sometimes fills her son’s car with gas because he drops and picks her up at the legislative building.
Frequent price increases, she said, affect families. Those who do not want to miss visiting their aging parents often may now have to limit their time of driving, she added.
Gas price increases are also making it too costly for families to get together regularly, she said.
Even the faithful may no longer go to church as often as they used to, she added.
It’s fortunate, she added, that her grandmother lives just next to her house so she and her husband can celebrate Mother’s Day with her.
But her daughter lives in Gualo Rai, and she would have to drive all the way to Torres’s place in Dandan on Mother’s Day.
Dong Ocaya, a driver, said what worries him more are the increases in the prices of basic commodities like ice and water.
The price of regular gasoline on Saipan reached an all time high of $5.05 a gallon in July 2008.
