US costliest gas cheaper than Phl

CNN reported last Monday gas prices to be falling for two straight weeks, despite spikes in crude oil rates. Average price of regular gasoline was $3.29 a gallon, the Lundberg Survey found. That’s 9 cents down from two weeks earlier, and 18 cents less than end-October. While crude rates rose $3.55 a barrel over the two weeks, gas prices fell. This was due to “shrinkage in profit margins of the downstream portion of the oil industry, that is, refiners and retailers,” publisher Trilby Lundberg said. “They were unable to pass on the higher oil rates because American motorists’ demand for gasoline continues to shrink due to hard economic conditions.”

It’s unlikely gas prices will continue to fall, though, Lundberg said, for refiners and retailers “will not be able to sustain losses on and on. It will depend on what crude oil does.”

The Lundberg Survey tallies prices at thousands of gas stations across America. The city with the lowest average last Dec. 5 was Albuquerque, New Mexico, at $2.84 a gallon; highest was San Francisco, at $3.67 a gallon.

Let’s compare that to Philippine pump prices, say, Seaoil unleaded gasoline, at P50.99 per liter in Metro Manila last Dec. 6. San Francisco’s $3.67 a gallon, divided by 4 (liters to a gallon), times 43 (pesos to a dollar) equals P39.45 per liter. SanFo, America’s most expensive gas city, is P11.54 cheaper per liter than Metro Manila. How come?

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The Senate has joined the raging debate on mining, with a committee investigative its destructive effects on agriculture. The inquiry instigated by Sen. Francis Pangilinan coincides with the administration’s review of its mining policy by a four-man Malacañang body.

At the Senate hearing Thursday constitutionalist Christian Monsod raised some points to chew on:

• Mining is a contentious social-justice issue because most mines are in rural, mountain areas, and tailings can gush into rivers, farms and coasts.

• Financial benefits? The contribution of mining (large- and small-scale, non-metallic) to total excise taxes in 2000-2009 was minimal: 0.7 percent. It’s even smaller compared to total BIR collections: 0.07 percent. DENR notes a disturbing discrepancy where exports exceed declared mineral production of P277 billion in 2000-2009. Another discrepancy is in potential versus actual excise taxes of P7.8 billion paid in 2000-2009. As for additional government income, since there are no figures about minerals, then there’s none from Mineral Production Sharing Agreements. There’s none too from the foreign Financial and Technical Assistance Agreements because of the onerous provisions of the Mining Act.

• Environmental and social costs. By its nature, mining disturbs the land, water and surrounding air. It entails not only mineral extraction but also use, removal or destruction of other resources: freshwater, timber, and wildlife. These can lead to health problems, displacements of communities, and social divisions. Government would need to spend more for public care and order.

• Institutional capability. The mining industry invariably would try to get the best deals for its shareholders. Government’s duty is to protect the people’s interests by ensuring the cost-benefits of mining. But the government, in the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016, admits that it does not have the capability to make such assessment. Page 310 of the PDP states: “...currently, there is no standard resource and environment valuation. There is a need to have a cost-benefit analysis and standard parameters that will consider all relevant values (including non-market values).” Other portions of the PDP concede overlapping and conflicting policies, government incapability of resource management, and spotty enforcement of environment laws.

• In view of government’s lack of reliable figures and statistics, and of capacity to assess cost-benefits and enforce laws, mining should not be rushed. Instead it should be suspended till the government builds up a database and capabilities.

A week before the Senate hearing the Ateneo School of Government held a conference on the benefits of mining. It came to the same conclusion: a government moratorium on mining to avoid wrong irreversible decisions.

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Manila’s Calle Azcarraga has long been renamed Claro M. Recto Avenue, and Dewey Boulevard to Roxas Boulevard. Rightly so, to honor great Filipinos instead of colonial rulers. Today Filipinos recall the busy Azcarraga only to point up its old notoriety as the document-counterfeiting center. Dewey Boulevard is mentioned only in sexagenarians’ recollections of post-War Manila.

The capital city’s central square, where major arteries meet, also was re-titled since 1963 Liwasang Bonifacio, from Plaza Lawton. But reader Ninfa Gutierrez wonders why Filipinos persist in calling after the American general the area bounded by the Central Post Office, Metropolitan Theater, and Mehan Garden. When saying Liwasang Bonifacio they refer only to the square where the statue of the Revolution starter stands. The observation is most pronounced on commuters and jeepney placards, as in, “Psst, para po, mamâ, d’yan ako sa Lawton bababâ.”

Clearly Filipinos need to be educated more about the past, to value the present. Also, as Gutierrez suggests, public transports need to be compelled to use Liwasang Bonifacio in lieu of Lawton.

There’s salience in learning about Azcarraga as a distinguished Manileño, and Dewey as winner of the (mock) Battle of Manila Bay; and of nation builders Recto and Roxas. It would be interesting to know that Lawton, captor of the Indian chief Geronimo, was the only American general killed in the Philippine-American War, by a Filipino sharpshooter ironically under General Licerio Geronimo. But more relevant were the trials and triumphs of Bonifacio in spreading the fight for freedom across the archipelago.

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ, (882-AM).

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