Lives caught up in oil

World oil prices are dictated by market forces. Unless someone manages to control each and every investor plunking his money into dollar-demoninated oil futures, there is nothing we can do about world oil prices.

However, pump prices in specific countries are a different story. They are subject to decisions arrived at by the managements of the different oil companies retailing the precious commodity.

And while pump prices eventually cannot go against the ebbs and flows of price fluctuations in the world market, oil companies can still dictate their own pace and control their own timings.

In other words, it is up to the oil companies whether to increase prices by one peso, two pesos, three pesos, etc, and whether to make the adjustments every week or every other week. The only inevitability here is the increase. The details can be manipulated.

When President Arroyo decided to plead with the oil players currently doing business in the Philippines to cut back on their oil prices, they apparently realized it was in their best interest to do so.

After all, this was the president pleading, something that does not happen everyday. And while Arroyo may be the most unpopular president ever, if you believe the surveys, she is still president until 2010.

You do not cross or antagonize a president, especially an increasingly desperate one who still has two more long years of wielding power in a country where power is everything. So the oil companies decided to play ball.

Besides, the cutback is not only temporary, it is mainly for show. The president suffered another setback in the ratings game and wanted a quick PR recovery that will not be lost on anybody. So what better ploy than a price rollback at her behest.

As expected, the leftists, who are never pleased with anything and who have such a dour and negative outlook they have forgotten even how to smile, quickly seized on the development as proof that the oil crisis is really a conspiracy between the government and oil companies.

“See. All the president has to do is pick up the phone and, voila, the oil companies can cut back their prices, “ goes the leftist chorus. It would have been so funny if it were not so tragic that such a simplistic and hare-brained assertion can actually find believers.

Oh, the leftists actually know the real score. They just are not telling. In promoting their political agenda, the leftists are not beyond twisting the truth to project a situation that is the exact opposite of what is happening. That’s how deceptive and manipulative they are.

That is why they never gained any credibility. After decades of trying to seize power, they never succeeded because most Filipinos are smarter than the leftists would give them credit for. The leftists are now only into protests as a means of livelihood, nothing more.

Still it is sad that, because there are so many disillusioned Filipinos, there are those who, no matter how crazy it sounds, would believe the leftists lie that oil prices are under the control of the president.

Nothing, of course, is farther from the truth. All the president wanted was a little breathing space and the oil companies were only more than happy to oblige. After all, they can raise prices anytime afterward. Having earned the gratitude of a president is just a bonus.

Perhaps the better activism and advocacy appropriate for the moment, whether by leftists or anyone else, is to fight aggressively for conservation and proper use of oil. There is no denying dependence on oil, but it can be managed with more prudence and enlightenment.