Why are fuel prices so high in Bacolod?

It’s just the start of the New Year 2013…but I’d like to announce the passing of my first cousin, Mr. Alfonso “Ponsoy”Avila Cañizares. He was a couple of months shy of his 61st birthday. Ponsoy as we fondly called him was my “kababata”. We grew up in the Flower Power generation where we had lots of fun. We were the only ones in the Avila family who smoked (I smoked a pipe) and drank hard liquor and went to the disco.

Ponsoy was also an avid Pelotari player… and we even played together in Cebu in a rare game of Pelota-Hi. It was a sports game using Pelota rackets… done after the declaration of Martial Law when the Jai-alai fronton was closed in Cebu. Ponsoy was also a past President of the Magino-o Lions Club. His remains like in state at the Cosmopolitan Funeral Home in Nivel Hills. Internment will be on Sunday Jan.13 after the 1:00PM mass at the Redemptorist Church. Burial will be at the Avila plot in Cebu Memorial Park. May we request the pious reader to please pray for his repose of his soul.

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When I checked my activities last year… I did not realize that I was so busy… for the first time in years; I wasn’t able to go on an out of town bike ride. We usually attend the annual Big Bike conventions, but last year’s convention was in Subic and many Cebuano riders did not like what they were told that motorcycles with Cebu plates would get a “special attention” by Land Transportation Office (LTO) operatives because of allegedly bogus plate numbers, which is totally untrue. So we didn’t ride to Subic last year.

So for the first weekend of the Year 2013… we decided to ride to Bacolod City for the weekend. Call it coincidental that my cousin Tony Segura recently bought a brand new F800GS BMW bike and needed a 1,000 km check and apparently the BMW dealership in Bacolod City repairs BMW cars and motorcycles. So both of us needed to go to Bacolod. There is a BMW dealership in Cebu, but they don’t have fix motorcycles there. As I didn’t get the chance to tune my trusty old BMW Roadster last year, it was time to go.

What would have been a lonely ride ended up with an entourage of friends who wanted to join us… all in all, ten big bikes…. including a few or my high school barkada who came on a four-wheels. We rode from Cebu City to the Naga-Uling Road to Toledo City… and took the Roll-on-Roll-off Lite Shipping Ferry to San Carolos City.

Taking that route saves a lot of time as the new road cuts across Negros Occidental through the Municipality of Salvador Benedicto from San Carlos City taking only 87 kilometers. Before this road was built, you had to go around Northern Negros from San Carlos City via Escalante and ride a total of 145 kilometers. The last time I passed this road was some 4-years ago… and parts of it were still unfinished. Today, this road is not only completed, but is now it is in the process of being widened.

This route is scenic because you can see not only the foot of Mt. Canlaon volcano, but something similar to the rice terraces and earth mounds similar to the Chocolate Hills of Bohol. When you pass this route… you should never miss the now famous Malatan-og Falls with a height of 120-ft. There is a “Lantawan” right along the national road where you can see this beautiful secluded waterfalls and take great photos. Actually you can go nearer if you have to the one-hour time to walk in dense jungle to see this falls up close. Indeed, the ride to Bacolod via Salvador Benedicto is for big bike riders one of the most scenic in the country.

On Sunday, we rode back to Cebu this time via the Southern Negros road, passing through the Pontevedra, Hinigaran, Kabangkalan, Mabinay, Bais hen to Amlan to cross back to Cebu. The roads in Negros Occidental are great, smooth and wide… but when we entered Negros Oriental, the bad roads began. I should be making a report on this in our Regional Development Council Region 7 (RDC-7) infrastructure Development Committee.

Incidentally, gassing up our bikes in Bacolod got me a sticker shock. The pump price of unleaded fuel was pegged at P57.59/liter at the EMB Shell Service Station along Lacson St. At the Shell Escario Station in Cebu City, the same fuel cost P51.95/ liter. That’s a huge difference of P5.64 pesos per liter. What surprises me is… the folks in Bacolod have not been making a howl about their outrageous fuel prices… or if they did, I didn’t read about it in the newspapers. It’s time to make noise and bring those prices down.

Yes, none of my friends from Bacolod like Philip Garcia or Manolet Lamata of the Thunderbugs Motorcycle Club complained to me about their outrageous gas prices. So allow me to complain for them. Lest you have forgotten that old saying “The noisy crying baby always gets the milk.” We in Cebu made a lot of noise about our fuel cost two years ago. Which is why fuel prices in Cebu is already at par with Manila. Now it is time for the fuel prices in Bacolod and I presume Iloilo to also be at par with Cebu.

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