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AS it
turns out, last weekend’s P1.50 jump in the prices of
gasoline, diesel and kerosene was just the opening salvo
in a far more disastrous assault on our collective
pockets. The oil companies announced earlier this week
that they plan to raise their retail prices by as much
as P11 per liter before the month is over.
Consumers are naturally up in arms over the impending
fuel-price shock—but that may just be the sort of jolt
all of us need, especially those who continue to hope
against hope that the cost of fossil fuels would somehow
“come back to normal,” whatever that means, at some
point in the future.
The
gradual weekly price increases of 50 centavos, before
last weekend’s P1.50, had actually lulled many of us
into a kind of stupor. Like the proverbial frog inside a
kettle full of water that was gradually made to heat up,
we consumers were led—and, worse, allowed ourselves—to
believe that we could somehow live with higher and
higher oil prices. In fact, what we need is the pain of
being steeped suddenly in boiling liquid, if only to
make us realize that our dependence on imported oil is
nothing short of steady but sure mass suicide.
For
instance, despite the fact that oil prices in the world
market have been skyrocketing for several months now,
our lawmakers continue to sit on several
renewable-energy (RE) bills pending in both the House of
Representatives and the Senate. The first of those
proposals was broached a decade or so ago!
Yet,
even as the oil companies were jacking up their retail
prices week in and week out, nary a word was heard from
our political leaders about the RE and similar measures,
which seek to accelerate the development of wind, solar,
geothermal, hydro and other alternative sources of
energy. Such congressional indifference to our energy
difficulties sometimes leads us to suspect that our
congressmen and senators are also in the oil companies’
pockets.
True,
harnessing our renewable energy potentials would have to
take some time, but our politicians’ persistent inaction
guarantees that such time will never come.
The only
legislative measure that somehow responded to rising
fossil-fuel prices was the Biofuels Act, which, while
laudable, per se, now falls far too short of addressing
our worsening energy situation.
Administratively, the authorities have released several
trial balloons, including a proposal to adopt a four-day
workweek. Knee-jerk complaints from some businessmen,
however, seem to have shot that blimp down, which is a
pity.
In the
United States and several European countries, national
and local governments already allow their workers to
work four 10-hour days. The option has helped cut down
on fuel and electric consumption as civil servants are
able to avoid at least two commutes and public offices
are shut down for three, instead of the previous two,
days. As oil prices drastically increased, a growing
number of private companies in the West have also begun
adopting the four-day workweek.
Our
government’s timidity in taking even the most tentative
steps to reduce fuel and electric consumption belies a
dangerous lack of focus. The ruling coalition continues
to be hounded by challenges to its mandate, and seems to
be more concerned with fending them off. Meanwhile, the
opposition continues to beat what are essentially dead
horses, distracting the nation’s attention toward minor
matters—and away from the most burning issue of the day:
energy.
Could
such official apathy be also due to the fact that
skyrocketing fuel prices have been a multibillion-peso
boon for the government, too?
As this
paper reported the other day, collections from the
value-added tax (VAT) on oil mushroomed from P16 billion
to P20 billion in just a matter of days. Like the oil
companies’ coffers, the national treasury is awash with
cash—and the government seems to be clueless on what to
do with its windfall.
Initial
suggestions on what to do with the VAT boon have been
predictably misguided. For instance, subsidies and
dole-outs are what left-wing lawmakers proposed—a
proposal that has been seconded incongruously by certain
business leaders. But as with just about every subsidy
and dole-out, that would be like dumping money into a
bottomless pit.
A more
sensible alternative is to plow the VAT windfall into
programs and projects that would assure the country’s
independence from imported fossil fuels and reconfigure
our energy mix. What we need are electric plants that do
no rely on imported petroleum—and coal, for that
matter—but utilize renewable, clean and indigenous
energy sources. Such plants, too, could supply the juice
for an expanded network of commuter trains.
Part of
the VAT windfall could also be used to encourage
research and development on alternative fuels for
motorized vehicles. The technology is, in fact, already
available; using money raised from taxes on oil in order
to adopt alternative fuels would not only accelerate the
process of technology transfer, but also render poetic
justice.
The oil
crisis offers numerous opportunities for the
Philippines, like the rest of the world, to finally end
our heavy reliance on imported petroleum. However,
turning those opportunities into actual programs and
projects will require focus and genuine leadership.
Now is
the time for our national leaders to rise to the
challenge. |
