Complacent about rising energy cost

There was this news report on CNN last Sunday about how Thailand has started to implement an energy conservation program. Video was shown of offices switching off lights during break times and Thai officials explaining how the high cost of energy made them more conscious of how it is used.

Some weeks ago, there was also a feature on CNN of how the Japanese salaryman is being encouraged to drop the usual coat and tie attire in favor of a new kind of office wear that would enable them to adjust the thermostats to save energy. The tradition bound Japanese is finding it difficult to adjust but a high profile campaign led by prominent Japanese leaders wearing strange looking short sleeve coats was launched to make that happen.

Compared to us, both Thailand and Japan are in a better position to afford the increased cost of energy. Yet, they have visible energy conservation programs and we don’t. All we have had so far, was an ill-conceived four-day work week for government workers, a program that only gave the bureaucrats an extra one day off a week. With oil prices on the way up again, hovering at $59 a barrel when I last checked, there is no doubt we need an energy conservation program in a hurry.

The ostentatious rich with their Expeditions and other gas guzzlers are squandering the precious foreign exchange our OFWs are sending home. We ought to adopt a rule we had during the energy crisis years of the 70s and 80s which banned importation of such gas guzzlers. But WTO rules would probably bar us from doing that now. We have to think of other creative ways of discouraging the owners of these gas guzzlers from using their vehicles.

How about a reverse subsidy at the pump? If the jeepney drivers get a discount when they load diesel, Expeditions should be charged double. There could be problems in implementation, but I guess, these are no different from the operational problems of granting the diesel discounts. Since we cannot ban them, there is a need to impose an economic disincentive for using those behemoths in our clogged streets.

It is unfortunate that when Tita Cory took over after EDSA 1, her administration threw out the energy plan we developed in reaction to the energy crisis challenge of the 70s and 80s. Think what they may of Ronnie Velasco, but if the plan we prepared under his guidance was implemented by Tita Cory, we wouldn’t be back to square one and half today.

Brazil is a good example of consistency in their effort for increased energy independence. Brazil was ahead of us even then, but unlike us, they pursued their motor alcohol program as part of their total efforts for greater indigenous energy utilization. Today, 40 percent of the fuel pumped by car owners from the gasoline stations is locally produced fuel alcohol. They were able to gear their automotive industry to produce vehicles that could use everything from 100-percent alcohol to various blends of alcohol and gasoline.

Here, our efforts to use locally produced alcohol to displace gasoline are good for press release purposes only. And contrary to what our current and past officials would make us believe, it is not a simple thing to develop the capability to use even a small amount of alcohol in our gasoline. The additional hectares of land planted to sugar that would be needed would probably be equal to the sugar land we now have.

I also cannot understand why media is so fascinated with such fantasies as water fueled cars or deuterium. If the use of water as fuel is true, the world scientific community would have validated it by now. As for deuterium... well... it’s a pie, maybe not in the sky, but in the Philippine deep.

We have no quick fix solution to the problem of increasing energy costs. The quickest one we can have is energy conservation. Even a 10-percent reduction in energy use should have its beneficial effect on the economy. But we need to raise public awareness on the need to conserve energy. Whatever happened to that much publicized campaign the advertising sector supposedly created gratis et amore?

Having been deeply involved in the energy conservation campaigns in the 70s and 80s, I know this is not an easy thing to do. But our people’s welfare needs it. Hello... hello... Ate Glo... how about it?

Nursing schools

According to a compilation of results of the licensure examinations made by Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago, nursing graduates from state colleges and universities (SCUs) as well as local government-run schools tend to perform relatively better than their counterparts from private institutions in the professional licensure examinations.

Not surprisingly, University of the Philippines-Manila, scored 99 percent. Others include: Mindanao State University-Marawi City, 98 percent; West Visayas State University-La Paz, 96 percent; Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, 95 percent; University of the Philippines-Leyte, 92 percent; Southern Luzon Polytechnic College, 91 percent.

But other state-run schools perform less creditably. Bicol University-Legazpi City, 63 percent; Western Mindanao State University, 61 percent; Cebu State College of Science and Technology, 60 percent; University of Eastern Philippines-Catarman, 59 percent; Bicol University-Tabaco, 52 percent.

Still other state run schools should probably close down and save precious taxes from being wasted. University of Northern Philippines-Vigan, 48 percent; Camarines Sur Community College, 38 percent; Camarines Sur Polytechnic College, 35 percent; Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasay, 32 percent; and City College of Urdaneta, 25 percent.

I can probably understand why provincial schools would perform poorly. But there is no excuse for the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasay to score a dismal 32 percent. Given how the city is seemingly badly run, if the garbage in the streets is any indication, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised.

Gray Power

A congressman wants the retirement age for private sector workers increased to 65… or at least, give workers the option to choose to work or retire. Increasing the retirement age of private sector workers in order to build up social security as a guaranteed safety net against poverty and old age, Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas said.

Gullas said raising the retirement age would keep the Social Security System (SSS) solvent in the decades ahead without any further increase in the mandatory contribution rate. At present, Gullas said retirement benefit payments already account for 44 percent of the annual benefit outlay of the SSS. Last year, Gullas said the SSS paid P19.7 billion in retirement benefits – nearly double the P10.1 billion in retirement benefits it paid in 1998.

The congressman makes sense. Many workers are still willing and able to work beyond 60. And as the congressman pointed out, "raising the retirement age would also be in keeping with the times." Average life expectancy of Filipinos has increased from 61.6 years in 1980 to 68.6 years as of 1999.

Hello... Garci...

I am sorry to note that Toting Bunye is losing his sense of humor over the jokes we are still getting on our cell phones over the Garci conversations. Psychologists say this is the Pinoy’s coping mechanism that lets off steam, preventing worse things from happening in the midst of this political crisis.

Whether you like it or not, Toting, here are a couple more I got.

Reporter: What does the President mean when she says she will talk about Garci at the proper time? When will that be?

Bunye: When she loses her voice.

And the other one:

Reporter1: Alam ko na why Mrs. Iggy Arroyo retired from the stock exchange... she is preparing for an important role in the family business that requires training and practice...

Reporter2: training and practice in what?

Reporter1: how to sound like her Ate Glo.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]