Guess who is barking up the wrong tree?

The best proof that many of our left-leaning organizations are totally ignorant of the events happening around the world is that, every time the pump prices of fuel and oil products increase, they go out of the streets and demand the repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law without admitting that the cause of these latest increases are due to the record breaking world prices of crude. Did I say that they were ignorant? Perhaps that's the wrong word… the word should be deception. Surely only complete fools or total idiots would believe in that yarn that if we do repeal the Oil Deregulation Law, the pump prices of oil would do down.

I'm sure that there is a limit to the patience of our people. Pres. Abraham Lincoln once quipped, "You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never fool all of the people all of the time!" The time has come for the people in the transportation industry to wake up to the realities of today. First, that the Philippines is not an oil producing nation, hence no matter what laws it enacts to regulate oil prices or deregulate them, we all succumb under the law of supply and demand. The only hope for world prices of crude to drop is when supply for oil is more than the world demand… something we cannot hope to reverse.

But if these leftist organizations truly want to help, they should teach our drivers and mass transit operators what kind of fuel efficient mode of mass transportation we should be using in this country. But then, that's not the objective of those who support the ideology of Mao Xedong. These left-leaning organizations couldn't even care any less when they use the tax money paid by Juan de la Cruz for their street marches in their effort to destroy our fragile democratic government. But if they insist on repealing the Oil Deregulation Law, my reply to them is, you're barking up the wrong tree!

Meanwhile, House Speaker Jose de Venecia has proposed that the leaders of the Group of 8 or the G-8 nations hold an oil summit to take up the issue on oil prices. Why? Does JDV think that by doing so these nations would be able to convince the oil cartel called the organization of Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC) to reduce the prices of oil when business for the cartel has never been this good? I don't think so. Even the United States of America, which produces its own oil can't do anything about this problem, for as long as it is good for the US economy. The reality is, America is largely responsible too for the cartel, after all, one of the biggest business in the State of Texas is selling oilrigs and other machinery and business for them is just as good, especially under Pres. George Bush!

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Last Sunday, I cut a clipping in the Sunday Lifestyle section of the Philippine Star. I was quite intrigued by an ad entitled, "Journey of Faith" which used to be the title of our tv show on CCTN a year ago, until we had to stop because our co-anchor Fr. Lucas Inoc moved to Tuburan Parish Church. Reading further, it turned out that the ad was a tourism promotion by the Singapore Tourism Board where they featured Art and History from the Vatican Collections complete with a Sacred Music Festival.

I have to hand it to the Singapore Tourism Board for giving Spiritual Tourism a good boost, despite the fact that Singaporeans aren't religious. But as it is in most non-Christian countries, if it is convenient for them to celebrate Christmas, then what the heck… for as long as they can make a fast buck, they'll do it. Tourism after all, makes good money.

I'm writing this piece because if there's any country that ought to promote religious or spiritual wellness tourism, from the Christian standpoint, it is the Philippines; after all, we are the first Christians in Asia. With so many religious festivities being held throughout Catholic Philippines, we could come up with practically a full year's schedule starting with Christmas, Sinulog, Holy Week, Easter Sunday, Flores de Mayo and all those other fiestas being celebrated in all the towns all over the nation with the exception of the Muslim areas, where they too may also have their own Muslim practices.

That ad should hopefully be an eye opener for the folks in the tourism industry because like it or not, the Singapore Tourism Board already beat us to it. However, the only thing that Singapore can offer are those pieces they borrowed from the Vatican… while here at home, we have more than enough religious or spiritual destinations to offer to tourists. The problem really is our lack of vision and imagination, something that the Singapore Tourism Board seems to have plenty!

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila's columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com