Though onion prices in the Philippines rising as high as PHP700 (US$12.70) a kilo is no joke, the memes that have come out of it certainly are — from wearing onion rings as jewelry to images of onion bouquets, all highlighting the fact that this staple good has now become one precious commodity.
This certainly seemed to be the case after a farmer paid for car damages not in pesos, but in onions.
Redditor u/axle_gallardo shared that his sister-in-law’s car had been accidentally dented by a farmer steering a vegetable-filled tricycle, sharing a photo of the woman smiling while accepting the farmer’s bundle of spring onions.
The sister-in-law then took to Reddit, under the username u/Glad-Competition3835, to provide more context behind the photo.
“The road was full. I saw him coming to the side of my car in my side mirror. And I don’t know why he was moving to the right towards me… The left side is open and wide and he could have moved straight forward,” she wrote.
The woman said that she heard a crash and checked out the damage. She then spoke to the tricycle driver and learned he was a farmer delivering vegetables from a distant province.
“I joked, [can you pay with the vegetables instead?]. He said, ‘I have onions.’I was ready to drive away when he came with two bunches of onions. Spring onions. I was returning it to them. They [didn’t] want [it]. So I got one,” she shared.
The anecdote clearly amused — and struck a chord — with people online.
“Onions > GCash,” one user joked, referring to the popular mobile wallet.
“Your sister-in-law hit the jackpot,” another quipped.
Meanwhile, a user argued that the onions would not be enough compensation to pay for the repairs, to which one rebutted, “Either way, the farmer would not have been able to pay a large amount. In these cases, usually, they’re let off the hook since they wouldn’t be able to compensate for the damages anyway.”
“Me and my friends giggle and call [onions] ‘organic crypto’,” one shared.
