We must still be a desirable destination: So many are sneaking in

In trying to justify their increase in gasoline and other fuel prices, the oil companies will have to contend with their own alarming image of alarming profit worldwide.

How can they claim that they would be on a slide to the poor house if they don’t increase their prices when Big Oil is making mega-bucks in this period of high demand?

It was reported in many other media, but TIME magazine, February 13 issue, has just confirmed that a $36.1 billion profit was made by Exxon Mobil for the year 2005, "the largest ever for an American company."

In the same issue, it was revealed that Royal Dutch Shell racked up a $22.9 billion profit for the same period last year, "the largest for a U.K.-listed company."

As for PETRON, whose major partner is Saudi Aramco, in Saudi Arabia, the source of most of our oil imports, it’s no secret that Saudi Arabia, which contains the world’s largest known oil reserves, is the biggest net exporter of oil. Saudi Aramco alone operates in an area totalling over 1.5 million square kilometers, exceeding the combined areas of California, Texas, Oklahoma and Utah – or, if you shift the comparison to Europe, the aggregate areas of Spain, Germany and France. The bulk of the company’s production comes from fields in the coastal plain of the Eastern province – an area stretching 300 kilometers north and south of Dammam, in an operation which includes both onshore fields up to some 160 kilometers inland and offshore fields in the Gulf. In 1995, Saudi Aramco in its operating area alone was estimated to hold some 259 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves.

What the company would gain from an increase of fuel prices at your corner gas pump is minuscule compared to the massive wads of petro-euros and petro-dollars the Kingdom earns per pumping day.

The other day, through our friend Ambassador Mohammed Ameen Wali, Saudi Arabia invited me to chair a group of Filipino editors and journalists invited to the Kingdom.

Unfortunately, owing to other commitments, I replied that I could not lead the delegation. But this invitation must be availed of by as many of our newspaper editors and columnists, or electronic media, as are able to make the trip.

Saudi Arabia is not merely strategic and wealthy, it is the "homeland" of Islam. It is the "guardian" of the Muslim world’s two holiest cities and shrines – Mecca (Makkah) and Medina. Non-Muslims, alas, are not permitted to enter either Mecca or Medina.

The third holiest site of Islam is the Dome of the Rock, by the Al Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem – which is why Arabs, and especially Palestinians, furiously vie for control of part of the ancient Jebusite city of Jerusalem, particularly Temple Mount.

The Dome of the Rock contains the "rock" from which the Prophet Muhammad was transported to heaven on a bolt of lightning. The Prophet, legend tells us, looked back, saw the Rock itself following his upward trajectory and "commanded" the Rock to go back to earth. Traditionally, non-Muslims are not allowed into that Mosque, even though Jerusalem is under Israeli control, but this writer was granted "permission" to do so in the 1960s.

Incidentally, many Filipinos, from engineers, oil workers, technicians, to doctors and nurses work in Saudi Aramco’s "modern" compound as well as the oil fields onshore and offshore in the Eastern Province, in the Dhahran-Dammam-Alkhobar area. The Aramco compound in Dhahran, not far from the airport, is a small city in itself, with a United States consulate in it and a University of Petroleum & Minerals. (Saudi Aramco has, for the past three years, also been inviting me for an official visit there).

It is easier for Saudi officials, and employees, as well as Saudis living in the area, to cross over to next-door-Bahrain, rather than go to Riyadh or Jeddah. In no time, you can zip across to Manama, the capital of the Emirate of Bahrain. The combined population of the combined Sheikhdoms (the old-fashioned name) of Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar is about 3.5 million – but an almost equal number of ex-pats, many of them Asian, live and work there.

To get to Bahrain from Saudi Aramco is a breeze. An incredible causeway was constructed during the oil boom of the late 1970s linking Dhahran to nearby Manama in Bahrain. The virtual land "bridge" was named the "King Fahd Causeway", after the just-deceased King of Saudi Arabia (the former Crown Prince Abdullah, who ruled in reality for the past eight years since his half-brother King Fahd had been "downed" by heart problems is now King and has just completed a triumphant Asian tour – which skipped us, of course).

It had taken four years to build and cost about US$718 million. Motorists and buses can cross the 25 kilometer long causeway, propped up by 500 huge concrete columns, and comprising five separate bridges (the longest 5.2 km in extent), in just an hour and 15 minutes. The concrete structure and its seven embankments are designed to withstand the most severe tides, though the water surrounding the bridge is normally not more than 13 meters deep.

In any event, Saudis who live in a strictly "religious" kingdom in which drinking, consorting with . . . er, ladies, and other sinful delights are prohibited, love to cross the King Fahd Causeway as often as possible to get their "jollies" in more easy-going, laid-back Bahrain. (Like Dubai, the government there doesn’t prohibit liquor, or insist that women be swatched in black abayas, or neck to ankle gowns, when they go out into the streets.)

When I was in Bahrain for about a week, one of my friends, a ranking official of Saudi Aramco, used to drive over to visit me daily, and ended up happily boozing in Manama – before driving back to his home in the Aramco compound way past midnight. I warned my friend Muhammad (his name) that one day he’d run right smack into one of those Causeway pillars if he didn’t stop taking that "one last drink" before clambering behind the wheel of his powerful car for the trip back.

He toasted my departure merrily the day before I flew back to Manila. I didn’t hear from him for weeks. Finally, I got a call from him apologizing for his long silence. In truth, on the last drive home my worst fear (he sheepishly admitted) had been fulfilled. In his state of inebriation, he had piled into one of the 500 concrete columns. His car had been a total wreck. He had spent weeks in the hospital – but now, he said, he was back in circulation – limping "temporarily" he hoped, but almost fit and dandy.

"Drink no more," I admonished my friend, "be a good Muslim!" To which he replied, with the familiar jesting irony: "All the good Muslims I know drink."

I can’t say whether he was joking or telling the truth, but recalling what happened to that Danish cartoonist, I won’t make any humorous remarks about it.

Now that I’ve discussed how "near" Bahrain is to our OFWs in Saudi Aramco and Saudi’s Eastern Province, you’ll understand why the Bahrainis are trying to bulldoze our Air Panel in coming talks on February 16 (tomorrow, Thursday) to approve more flights from that tiny Arab Sheikdom to the Philippines.

In the February 16 to 17 air talks in Clark Field, Pampanga, our government panelists must say "NO." Bahrain has only 1,800 tourists to send us annually. There are only 30,000 Filipino OFWs working there. But it’s obvious to the Bahrainis (who own a big slice, by the way, also of Gulf Air) want to be granted 107,000 seats a year so they can suck into its passenger seats, many of the over 900,000 Filipino OFWs living and working in Saudi Arabia.

Let’s not bankrupt our own flag carrier, Philippine Airlines, which has been unsuccessfully flying in and out of Saudi Arabia, or prejudice Saudia, the Saudis’ own flag carrier, by permitting the Bahrainis to grab a bigger slice of the action.

Fair is fair. If we don’t protect ourselves, nobody will protect us.

* * *

At our Tuesday Club breakfast in EDSA Plaza Hotel yesterday, I had a long and interesting talk with our Immigration Commissioner Al Fernandez. I had remarked to him that I noticed there were so many Koreans living in Metro Manila that it couldn’t be possible that most of them had permanent residence status, or had even become "citizens," or were registered with student visas or working permits. Fernandez, who’s one of our Club members, said that as many as 519,000 South Korean "tourists" had come to the Philippines in 2005, in contrast to only 500 Japanese.

We welcome South Koreans as tourists, of course, but do any or even many of them overstay their tourist welcome? That’s the pregnant question. If you’ll notice, entire Korean communities have sprung up while we slept. Rockwell and Bel-Air, for instance, are now being dubbed "Korea Town." They even have dozens of Korean dentists, to cite just one field of service, operating here. Are those dentists licensed to practice "legally" in our country?

If you’ll notice, the figure of 519,000 Korean arrivals is not far short of the figure for Fil-Americans who returned to visit their "homeland" last year – which is 621,000 more or less.

Another visibly large group are the Indians. Despite alleged visa "difficulties," no less than 78,000 Indians entered the Philippines in 2005. Did most of them leave? Very interesting. I’m not implying that some of the tourists or businessmen jumped into the 5/6 business, but what the heck.

As for illegal Chinese, when the famous Divisoria "market" called 168 was raided December 13 and 14, no less than 43 of the Chinese peddling goods there were found to be illegal. When the Baclaran Plaza Mall was raided, 108 Chinese illegals – most of them from Xiamen – were also rounded up.

Gee whiz. For all our crime problems and alleged economic insecurity, the Philippines must still be a desirable destination – or haven. So many continue to attempt to sneak in.

Or, it’s possible, the Philippines is an easier environment in which criminals can lucratively operate. Take your pick.