Ducky Paredes

Malaya (12.28.05)
“By the way, the ban on chlorofluorocarbons as refrigerant may be based on flawed science. The research on this has not been too extensive.”

A Word About Freon

by Ducky Paredes

The first refrigerators (late 1800s to 1929) used toxic gases — ammonia (NH3), methyl chloride (CH3Cl), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) – as their coolant. There were, however, several fatal accidents in the 1920s, such that refrigerators would be placed outside homes in the backyard.

In 1928, Thomas Midgley, Jr. invented a “miracle compound” called Freon. This gas was colorless, odorless, nonflammable and non-corrosive. Midgely also put the lead in gasoline.
In 1930, Thomas Midgley held a demonstration of the physical properties of Freon by inhaling a lung-full and breathing it out onto a candle flame, which was extinguished. This proved that Freon was non-toxic and non-flammable.
Now, of course, Freon or chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are known to add to the depletion of the earth’s ozone shield. Leaded gasoline is also a major pollutant.
How does this affect us? The Philippines signed the Montreal Protocol, which seeks to eliminate the use of CFCs. The held belief is that the chlorine in CFCs escapes into the atmosphere, rises into the stratosphere, combines with the ozone found in those upper levels, and thereby removes the ozone shield needed to protect the earth and its inhabitants from harmful solar radiation. Thus the ban on Freon, which we use in the air conditioners in our homes and our cars.
Beginning January 1, 2006, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) will not register your newer model car if your air-con still uses Freon.
According to the company that, in 2001, sold me the car that I still use, all their cars have been on Montreal Protocol-approved hydroflourocarbons (HFC-134A) since 1998.
The rule is that all car models from 1999 up will be inspected. Car manufacturers have stopped using Freon since 1998 but the LTO suspects that Pinoy owners may have been retrofitting in order that they can continue using the banned refrigerant, Freon. Vehicle models earlier than 1998 will be registered without refrigerant inspection but will have to be totally phased out and junked by 2012. Or, they can change their air-conditioning to one that uses hydroflourocarbons and not chlorofluorocarbons or Freon.
(By the way, the ban on chlorofluorocarbons as refrigerant may be based on flawed science. The research on this has not been too extensive. Besides, there are a lot more chemicals used in industry, agriculture and elsewhere that could also be causing the holes in the ozone.)
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There ought to be no question at all that former Senator Robert Barbers should be buried as a hero at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani. As a former Manila policeman, NBI agent, DILG Secretary, congressman and senator, Bobby Barbers is more qualified than many others to be hailed as a hero of the people.
There ought to be no necessity for anyone to pass judgment on this. Burial at the Libingan ought to be automatic for people like Barbers. Instead, it now seems necessary for the family to haggle with those in power if they want this to happen. If that is the case, perhaps it is better (as the family has decided) that they bury Bobby in a private cemetery. The burial will be on January 6, after the body is brought back from Surigao City, his birthplace and which he served as congressman.
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This is from the internet (http://www.pilipino.org.ph). No, he did not write me; but I thought that his patriotic logic was interesting enough for everyone to read. Here it is:
“ Some of those I talked to tried to discourage me, pointing out that I had already been granted bail by the court in my coup d’etat case. I had even posted bail and a release order. Our pending case in the military court is a simple case of alleged misconduct and is not punishable by imprisonment or anything worse than that. Freedom and acquittal, they said, should come soon. Leaving now would only give the government an excuse to harass me, my family, and everyone else identified with me.
“They made sense, but I am not doing this for my personal interest. I am doing this because it is my duty, as a soldier, to serve my country, to fight for my people. I enlisted and later on commissioned in the military because I thought that was the best way for me to serve my people. That remains my desire and goal until now: to serve, not to protect my own interests.
“Still others asked me, what could I do? I was nothing, they said: just a boy from the province. I am not one of the leaders and movers, or of the shakers. I am just an ordinary man who would be better off limiting himself to his own personal life. Yet that is the crux: I am an ordinary man who is doing something for his country.
“Remember, 20 years ago, when we said that what was important was to light one little candle to keep the darkness out? That maybe if each one lights a candle, we would have enough candles to drive the darkness away? There is a children’s song that goes, ‘a little drop of water, a little grain of sand, makes a mighty ocean and a pleasant land.’ Remember the Filipino saying about the broomstick, how easy it is to break a single twig, yet how hard to break them when they are tied together? I am nothing but an ordinary man. Aren’t we all?

“Together we can be extraordinary. I leave to join the fight of ordinary men, out to accomplish something extraordinary. If in the process I die, I die in peace; I know that I die fighting for the Filipino people.” — Capt. Nicanor Faeldon (capt_nicanor_faeldon@yahoo.com)
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I can only hope, Captain, that there are more like you in our military who are brave enough to stand for what that they believe and whose love for country goes beyond personal loyalties.
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Readers who missed a column can go to http://ducky.paredes-ohana.org. Your reactions are welcome at duckyparedes@gmail.com.
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hvp (12.27.05)

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