No Choice
No choice
Updated 00:39am (Mla time) Aug 27, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the August 27, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
THE DEPARTMENT of Energy is urging motorists to go car-less once a week, on top of that one imposed by the color-coding traffic scheme, in order to save gasoline. The campaign deserves everyone's support. But granted it does not, the sharply rising world prices of crude oil will force the most recalcitrant motorists to save or else.
Perhaps that's the sweet part about the largely bitter affair of ever-zooming world oil prices. The rapid industrialization in China and India, the increased economic activity in the United States and Europe, and the political uncertainty in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East indicate that the regime of high oil prices is not about to end any time soon. So the Philippines must either tame the oil price tiger or roll with the punches. It has no choice but to go along with the logic of the market.
The odd thing is that private car use should have been rationalized long ago. The worsening traffic situation in Metro Manila should have compelled car-pooling and such other measures for the judicious use of vehicles. But lack of public encouragement and government's free-wheeling policies on private car use--for example, the absence of provisions to ensure that car buyers should have garages and not make public roads and even sidewalks their private car park; as well as the rather liberal regulations on car-tinting, special plates, use of sirens and other vanities--has merely abetted car conceit and socially insensitive behavior.
The prospect of world crude oil prices reaching $50 per barrel is a good, albeit shocking, wake-up call. The days of untrammeled car use--aided by the rather low world oil prices in the early 1990s (at $11 per barrel!)--are over. Definitely the new developments will have an impact not only on car use, but also on car buying.
The menu of other energy-saving measures by the DOE should likewise be heeded: ensuring fuel-efficient vehicles, promotion of walking and biking, shorter mall hours, and putting up taxi stands in malls and other commercial places are practical tips to reduce energy consumption. The program seeks to reduce, by 12 percent, oil importation and save the country much-needed foreign exchange. A by-product of gasoline conservation is less pollution. For pollution-choked Metro Manilans, that's a welcome bonus.
Bad exampleA NATIONWIDE energy-saving campaign can only work if the government leads the way. President Macapagal-Arroyo knows this. She says that the government would exercise "leadership by example." She has in fact imposed a moratorium on the purchase of new state vehicles.
Of course, we have yet to see whether her "leadership by example" will work. She might have proclaimed a moratorium on car purchases, but wily government functionaries could easily exploit the thousand and one loopholes that obtain in a bureaucracy of alibis to be excused from her policy.
The bureaucracy is ordinarily car-crazy. It is a given that in a culture of entitlement, a bureaucracy is usually filled with men and women who crave not only positions and titles, but also the perks that go with them. Even persons from the private sector who enter government usually reward themselves with perquisites that fly in the face of the austerity and simplicity required of public servants.
Not too long ago, an education official from the private sector was able to raise money, only to use it for re-fleeting the motor pool of his department. The new cars might have been really needed, but the telling thing was that the official bought and assigned to himself the most expensive--and the heartiest gasoline guzzler - of the new cars. His conduct shows that in the bureaucracy, as in the rest of Philippine society perhaps, cars are a status symbol, a symbol of power.
Would the logic of the market work as well on the government as it surely would on private vehicle users reeling from high gasoline prices? That's doubtful. For all the talk about public accountability, the public sector does not feel compelled to be responsible for its runaway expenses and twisted accounting. How else can one explain the fiscal crisis?
Thus, the government is the worst exemplar of "leadership by example." As the private sector tries to save gasoline, expect government officials to drive around town in fancy gasoline swiggers and with a convoy to boot.
Of course we would be happy to be proven wrong.
Updated 00:39am (Mla time) Aug 27, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the August 27, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
THE DEPARTMENT of Energy is urging motorists to go car-less once a week, on top of that one imposed by the color-coding traffic scheme, in order to save gasoline. The campaign deserves everyone's support. But granted it does not, the sharply rising world prices of crude oil will force the most recalcitrant motorists to save or else.
Perhaps that's the sweet part about the largely bitter affair of ever-zooming world oil prices. The rapid industrialization in China and India, the increased economic activity in the United States and Europe, and the political uncertainty in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East indicate that the regime of high oil prices is not about to end any time soon. So the Philippines must either tame the oil price tiger or roll with the punches. It has no choice but to go along with the logic of the market.
The odd thing is that private car use should have been rationalized long ago. The worsening traffic situation in Metro Manila should have compelled car-pooling and such other measures for the judicious use of vehicles. But lack of public encouragement and government's free-wheeling policies on private car use--for example, the absence of provisions to ensure that car buyers should have garages and not make public roads and even sidewalks their private car park; as well as the rather liberal regulations on car-tinting, special plates, use of sirens and other vanities--has merely abetted car conceit and socially insensitive behavior.
The prospect of world crude oil prices reaching $50 per barrel is a good, albeit shocking, wake-up call. The days of untrammeled car use--aided by the rather low world oil prices in the early 1990s (at $11 per barrel!)--are over. Definitely the new developments will have an impact not only on car use, but also on car buying.
The menu of other energy-saving measures by the DOE should likewise be heeded: ensuring fuel-efficient vehicles, promotion of walking and biking, shorter mall hours, and putting up taxi stands in malls and other commercial places are practical tips to reduce energy consumption. The program seeks to reduce, by 12 percent, oil importation and save the country much-needed foreign exchange. A by-product of gasoline conservation is less pollution. For pollution-choked Metro Manilans, that's a welcome bonus.
Bad exampleA NATIONWIDE energy-saving campaign can only work if the government leads the way. President Macapagal-Arroyo knows this. She says that the government would exercise "leadership by example." She has in fact imposed a moratorium on the purchase of new state vehicles.
Of course, we have yet to see whether her "leadership by example" will work. She might have proclaimed a moratorium on car purchases, but wily government functionaries could easily exploit the thousand and one loopholes that obtain in a bureaucracy of alibis to be excused from her policy.
The bureaucracy is ordinarily car-crazy. It is a given that in a culture of entitlement, a bureaucracy is usually filled with men and women who crave not only positions and titles, but also the perks that go with them. Even persons from the private sector who enter government usually reward themselves with perquisites that fly in the face of the austerity and simplicity required of public servants.
Not too long ago, an education official from the private sector was able to raise money, only to use it for re-fleeting the motor pool of his department. The new cars might have been really needed, but the telling thing was that the official bought and assigned to himself the most expensive--and the heartiest gasoline guzzler - of the new cars. His conduct shows that in the bureaucracy, as in the rest of Philippine society perhaps, cars are a status symbol, a symbol of power.
Would the logic of the market work as well on the government as it surely would on private vehicle users reeling from high gasoline prices? That's doubtful. For all the talk about public accountability, the public sector does not feel compelled to be responsible for its runaway expenses and twisted accounting. How else can one explain the fiscal crisis?
Thus, the government is the worst exemplar of "leadership by example." As the private sector tries to save gasoline, expect government officials to drive around town in fancy gasoline swiggers and with a convoy to boot.
Of course we would be happy to be proven wrong.
posted by Dante at 5:39 PM
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