Why don't we just create an honestly Filipino oil company?

Let's face it. We can't fight the worldwide oil cartel, which impudently doesn't even deny it is a cartelized conspiracy to "control" oil prices, unless we're prepared to play rough, take risks, and tough it out.

If there's anything that will ruin the economy faster than a speeding bullet (or Superman), it's the ruthlessly escalating "price" of oil. As long as we've not developed alternative sources of energy, we're stuck with importing oil -- and those terrible meltdowns or leaks in nuclear facilities from the former Soviet Union (Ukraine), the United States, to Japan rule out the atomic or nuclear option. Can you imagine a nuclear power plant being run by political appointees or barangay nominees like the Metro Manila traffic aides?

As for geothermal energy, which shows great promise, aside from Tiwi and some sites in the Visayas it remains just a promise.

As a result, the Filipino President and the Filipino people are nailed to the Cross by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), formed in 1960 by five charter member countries, namely Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait. In the early 1970s, the OPEC was expanded to include Libya and Algeria. In October 1973 this OPEC flexed its cartelized muscle by beginning to up the ante in a bizarre series of Blitzkrieg price increases which soared to US$30 per barrel by 1980 (from an original $3 -- yep, three dollars -- per barrel).

This oil shokku, as the anguished Japanese called it when they were caught disastrously in its coils, brought the industrialized "First" World to its knees. You can imagine how it affected us in the Third World, with our people never having enough of anything.

Only the Dutch, perhaps, were unfazed (although not an oil-producing nation, with Royal Dutch Shell they controlled quite a bit of oil reserves), and, besides, the Dutch went around on bicycles. Oh for the days of the old calesa, karetela, dokar, tartanilla -- or even the foot-pedalling pedicab!

Using the analogy of the Cross, the Lord Jesus was crucified between two thieves. I won't call the Big 3 oil companies that dominate the Philippines "the three thieves," but sanamagan: our fortunes lie at the mercy of three foreign-controlled oil "giants" i.e. Petron, Shell and Caltex. Hello -- did we say "Petron" of the former Philippine National Oil Corp. (PNOC)? You bet. After President Ramos and his administration sold Petron to Saudi Aramco, this initially "Filipino" oil company is now manipulated by Saudi Arabia -- one of the OPEC's founders.

Capish? No wonder there have been seven lightning oil increases imposed on our nation between April and November in 1999 -- in under eight months! And the eighth disastrous oil price increase is coming next week.

We're at the mercy, it's clear, of the oil barons.

It's not a pretty sight to see our President and Cabinet ministers literally pleading with Petron, Shell and Caltex to please, please not make the eighth price raise since April last year "too big."

What a humiliating and painful situation! Having lost Petron, which was specifically designed to keep the Naughty Seven Sisters (as the earlier OPEC bullies were called by the Italians) from misbehaving, we've got no bargaining chip left.

Petron may have a Filipino symbolically at the helm, but this is simply camouflage and window-dressing. The Saudis are firmly in the saddle there -- and the distressing fact is that the Saudis are both the "importers" and the "suppliers" of oil. Hence, they set the price remorselessly without any defense or braking mechanism left to our government.

This writer attacked the sale of Petron as a treacherous sell-out when it took place. Even the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Petron shares at that time made outlandish profits for quite a number. The profit-takers did not realize (or possibly some did) that we had bartered away our future for a mess of pottage.

For that matter, the so-called Oil Deregulation Law has proven another bitter mistake. What has it done to "help" the Filipino consumers? The way it's working -- or rather, NOT working -- this puerile statute has damned us to perdition.

I've disagreed more often than not with Bataan Congressman Enrique "Tet" Garcia -- such as the foolish and expensive fight he waged against the Luzon Petrochemical Corporation, a huge Taiwanese investment of something like $400 million (more or less?). If that naphtha cracker plant had been established, it would have provided not only employment for its workers, but another 10,000 jobs in a dozen or more "downstream" industries. However, Garcia took the battle to the Supreme Court -- and, to the surprise of many, the high court upheld him. This move may have paralyzed foreign investment interest for two or three years.

This time, though, Congressman Garcia is making sense when (as our colleague Jarius Bondoc pointed out yesterday) he's battling for a bill setting up an official "oil exchange" at which oil and other fuels can be traded at their lowest bids.

I suggest that President Estrada and Congress join hands in this crisis -- and you bet it is a crisis -- to radically up the ante, by creating an honest-to-goodness, real Filipino oil company, to take the place vacated by the virtual hijack of Petron. Only when we have raised our flag, and spit the OPEC in the eye, will the oil leviathans and cartel bullies begin to take us seriously.

The President has just put himself at the head of a "powerhouse" team, composed of fresh blood in the Cabinet, plus an impressive group of consultants and business advisers. The recruitment of Wash SyCip, Ting Paterno, Cesar Virata and Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala signals that the Chief Executive has offered an olive branch to his severest critics -- the Makati Business Club. It's time for us to unite and defend ourselves in this cruel world, where "globalization" is wielded like a club to batter the weak and unwary.

With another fuel over-pricing orgy staring us in the face, we can't indulge in the luxury of squabbling and bitching. Somehow, a way must be discovered, spiced with dash and imagination, to enable us to fight back. To be sure, there will be risks aplenty. We could even be reduced to penury, but we're headed in that direction anyway, bleating helplessly like lambs. Unless real leadership and grit sustain us.

The President, if plans don't miscarry, is scheduled to go to the US in April. Without sitting on our hands, advance teams can begin negotiating with American oil interests not locked into the OPEC cartel -- such as Texas firms (there's a J.R. Ewing or two out there in a ten-gallon hat and cowboy boots). Perhaps, if ever push comes to shove, we might even "miraculously" discover all those hidden oil wells in Malampaya Sound in Palawan, which electrified the imagination almost a score of years ago, but then mysteriously fizzled out.

Remember: The power of the oil cartel lies in that the OPEC members strive to control the "production" of oil from their wells -- so as to manipulate and regulate prices.

We've identified Big Crime which stalks our land -- kidnapping, drug-dealing, violent robbery, murder, and rape. It's probably time we identified Big Oil as another of the culprits. The trouble is, like the Drug Lords, the Big Oilmen can get themselves a lot of . . . "friendship" and "support." Need I say more?

Senator Teofisto "Tito" Guingona came out forthrightly yesterday to declare that he was misquoted by some newspapers.

He said he's backing up the new Interior and Local Government Secretary Alfredo Lim all the way. Lim, Tito remarked, is not just a tried-and-true lawman, but a sincere family friend.

Coming from Guingona, who used to be Secretary of Justice (and therefore the Cabinet minister overseeing the National Bureau of Investigation), that's a tribute. So, we all stand corrected.

If you noticed, the small band of students and youths who tried to demonstrate against Lim in front of Malacañang's Gate 7 obviously came from the Left. You can be sure the Leftist fringe and the Communists, not just the killers and crooks, hate Lim. They can browbeat and discomfit less resolute types, including a gaggle of politicians, but they've found to their discomfort and pain, many a time, that they can't faze Fred Lim. To them, always and everywhere, he is "the enemy." Which suits DILG Secretary Lim just fine. After all, a guy has to choose his enemies even more carefully than he chooses his friends.

As for the 500 Marines who were deployed, at the request of Director (General) Panfilo "Ping" Lacson of the Philippine National Police to help fight criminality and patrol the streets and markets of Metro Manila, I'm glad the President has declared that the Marines are here to stay. The feedback we've been getting from the civilian population, the "real" people endangered by street crime and akyat-bahay intrusions, is that the Marines are more than welcome. Yesterday, on the front page of Malaya daily was a photograph that spoke volumes. It showed a squad of Marines in their neat white caps, tan shirts, and olive-brown trousers, being briefed by a police Superintendent. The Marines were trim and looked ready for action. The police officer had his belly overlapping his belt. Get the picture?

Of course there are fine, honest, physically-fit and spritely policemen. But they seem to be fewer and farther between than is good for a force which has to be ready to respond to a cry for "help" or a criminal attack at the drop of a hat; and have the energy, as well, to walk the beat, no matter how hot the day or how dark the night. Our cops have to possess guts, not an overhanging gut.

General Lacson, when I discussed the Marines with him yesterday, said quite frankly that he hoped that the strict adherence to the uniform code, the discipline, the fitness, and the deportment of the Marines -- the elite of our armed forces -- will influence and even inspire his policemen to shape up.

Why, Ping, that's a tall order. Too many policemen don't bother to wear their caps or keep their shirts buttoned. When one gives way to shoddiness and grunge and thinks our Philippine climate is "too hot," it's time to emigrate.

In prewar days during the Commonwealth era, Manila policemen wore khaki helmets or solar topees, kept themselves buttoned up to the chin and, in later years, even sported neckties. Don't tell me that "global warming" has made that sort of dress discipline unendurable.

In our old police-reporter days, I recall, policemen still dressed smartly and were proud of their uniform and badge. I must be growing old. They'd rather disguise themselves nowadays in scruffy civilian tee-shirts and polo shirts and tattered denims. Are they ashamed of their profession or are they engaged in something shameful? The long-suffering public can no longer give them the benefit of the doubt.

What I like about General Lacson, aside from his tough, here's-mud-in-your-eye attitude, is his determination to make policemen, once more, spick and span. Honor is not something you can wear on your uniform -- but pride in your uniform is a good start.

THE ROVING EYE . . . We're happy in The STAR to be among the sponsors of the "Lea Salonga Homecoming Concert" which has sold out all tickets for its two performances, tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday night at the Philippine International Convention Center. In short, you can't get a ticket by now for love or money. What's interesting is that Lea was supposed to sing for only one night (Jan. 14), but the "show" sold out in just two days and the demand was so great that a second concert this Saturday was set. There's a clamor for a third concert this Sunday. Keep your hopes up, but the last I heard is that Lea is headed for Bangkok. Can she be convinced to sing on for "one more night"? . . . Just to catalogue oil and fuel price increases. In April, the price went up by 21 centavos. In May by another 20 centavos. In June, by four centavos. In July, by 21 centavos. In August, 41 centavos. In September, 65 centavos. Finally, in November 1999, by 40 centavos more. They all add up and are fast accelerating. You know the score: when oil and fuel prices jet upwards, food and other essential items, and, naturally, transportation costs, soar up, too. Are we in trouble? You bet.