“Environmentalists can hem and haw all they want but the only ones who can get things to really move away from pollution are those who are now doing most of the polluting.”
by Ducky Paredes
When Cardinal Ricardo Vidal says about Sulpicio Lines: “The government should not take over the operation because they are not capable of doing that” and when he supported government’s decision to allow Sulpicio to resume its cargo handling operation and pressed for the resumption of its passenger handling operations, was he speaking as a Prince of the Church or as a Cebu politico?
According to Vidal: “Because of the situation and for economic purposes, I think we still let them operate because they constitute 40 percent of the shipping industry in the country, but they should first finish the case and most important, learn their lesson from what happened.”
The religious ought to be warned against talking about things outside of their competencies. Sure politicians do this all the time and so do commentators and columnists but, really, we do expect better from Princes of our Church.
One expects that Sulpicio is generous with its donations to Vidal’s archdiocese which is probably why he feels that it is his duty to speak up for one of its richest patrons.
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Good things are happening in Makati. The Makati Jeepney Operators and Drivers Alliance Inc. (MJODA) will convert at least 300 jeepneys to LPG.
One of MJODA’s partners, Ricardo David of David Motors has already fitted three 18-seater jeepneys with engines that run on LPG that is cheaper and has a cleaner exhaust than diesel. and run
There are 253,000 jeepneys nationwide are probably the heaviest polluters of all transportation operating in the Philippines. Surplus diesel engines, the ones most used by jeepney operators cannot possibly pass muster if we want cleaner air.
To fund the conversion of 300 jeepneys, the MJODA will avail itself of the P1-billion loan package announced by the government.
For the conversion program, MJODA signed last June 28 a memorandum of agreement with David Motors, Better Alternative Auto LPG Co. Inc., Liquigas Philippines Corp., and PhilPan Subic Ventures Inc.
I am glad that there is a group that is looking at that government offer seriously and actually wants to help clean up the environment. Concern for the environment will not translate into action to clean it up unless those who pollute most – in this case, the jeepney operators are convinced that this is the way to go. Environmentalists can hem and haw all they want but the only ones who can get things to really move away from pollution are those who are now doing most of the polluting.
Actually, the best way to fund this may be to apply for carbon credits with the World Bank, which will pay you if you find a way of stopping pollution by doing things differently. This is a natural for that program.
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In a sense, our political opposition is more reasonable than the political opposition in Malaysia that is directly blaming the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for last month’s 41-percent fuel price hike. Badawi’s political future looks bleak. He is being blamed by his own arty for the disastrous results of the general elections in March.
And now, this – a huge rally that his main opponent, former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, is using to unite the opposition and seize power with the help of defecting government lawmakers. Anwar’s possible succession has caused the Malaysian police to again file a sodomy charge against Anwar. Ten years ago, they made the same charged and successfully jailed him but that was when Prime Minister Mahatir was at the height of his powers and clearly manipulated the events to put Anwatr away.
Badawi may not be as powerful or astute a politician as Mahatir was.
According to one of the organizers of the rally:
“Our aim is not to cause trouble but to get the message to the government that fuel prices must come down and we will not stop our protests until this happens. The protests will only get worse until the government listens to the voice of the people to ease their burden and suffering.”
What, really, can a government do about higher oil prices?
Here, the government has resorted to giving money to the poor in Metro Manila when the date on inflation shows that the poor in the provinces farthest from Metro Manila are actually the harder-hit by inflation. They are in more need of alms than Metro Manila’s poor are.
Only Senator Mar Roxas is actually talking about the high world oil prices. And Mar is at least not as negative as the Malaysian politicos are. What Mar wants is for the government to come up with a “battle plan” to address this “assault” against the Filipinos’ purchasing power and livelihood.
Mar says: “We are being assaulted by high oil prices. We’ll never see $50-a-barrel crude oil again within our lifetime. Is our government prepared to face this, or are they saying we are totally helpless?”
Among Mar Roxas’ suggestions are: Reverting to a four-day workweek for government employees, exempting only frontline, health and security services; Money from unproductive foreign trips should be transferred to much-needed relief measures, such as conditional cash transfers to affected workers, food-for-work public works programs, or a genuine food-for-school program; Free shuttle services to employees as non-wage support; and, most important is this one: “If we hike interest rates, then our small and medium-scale enterprises—that employ 70% of the workforce—would be direly affected since they rely on credit to run their businesses.”
There’s a senator that talks sense!
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hvp 07.07.08)
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