Gasoline alert!!!

Buy your gasoline from Petron, Shell, or Caltex unless you want to run your gasoline engine on petrol that could be harmful to people, to the environment and damage modern gasoline engines!

This was the startling discovery made by several motoring journalists who stumbled upon the information during the second media forum hosted by the Ayala Automotive Holdings Inc., the official Philippine distributor of Volkswagen cars in the country. The unintended revelation occurred when members of the media who were loyal VW fans, questioned why AAHI decided to sell an all-diesel lineup for their initial offering?  To their credit the local VW reps were quite upfront with their answer by informing the group that the European VW technical group had commissioned an independent laboratory outside the Philippines to analyze several samples of gasoline randomly collected from all over the Philippines to determine the content and general quality of gasoline in the market.

When test results returned, Volkswagen learned that only the gasoline sold by Petron, Shell, & Caltex, passed the over-all quality standards of Volkswagen. The rest of the samples revealed the presence of certain unacceptable additives particularly Manganese which was obviously being used to replace Lead in order to increase and stabilize octane ratings. The problem is that Manganese like Lead causes long term damage to the central nervous system, has the same polluting characters of Lead and will surely impair the over-all performance of modern engines, eventually causing serious malfunctions.

Asked how come other car brands of similar platforms were being offered in the Philippines, the very direct reply was: it’s really not Volkswagen’s concern what others do, but Volkswagen is not willing to risk or compromise their standards. The VW representatives further added that if and when gasoline engine models are sold in the Philippine market, it will probably come with very specific terms, instructions and agreements with buyers that the cars can only be filled and operated on gasoline provided by the Top 3 fuel companies who reportedly have even been asked to issue certificates that their products do not contain Manganese. They also mentioned that any attempt to use fuel with manganese additives could easily be detected through computerized sensors and engine analytics! Amazing! Our diesel passed but the gasoline failed. Hello DOE how did this happen?

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Last Monday afternoon, a select group of media practitioners from the Philippines left for Tolouse, France as part of a hectic 5-day journey where they will be spending much of their time visiting and meeting with representatives of AIRBUS, Europe’s number one aircraft manufacturer which produces half of the Jet Airliners in the world.

I, unfortunately, had to decline the invitation from PAL and AIRBUS because of the double angioplasty I had 3 months ago. While one presumes to be fully recovered after 3 months, it is always wiser to be on the side of caution especially since the Airbus visit entail jetlag on both ends of the trip, climactic adjustment and a number of bus rides and transfers for four days. 

After their very short working visit the group will then board newly acquired plane and be part of its maiden journey to the Philippines where the brand new plane will join the ever growing fleet of Philippine Airlines. I may be staying home for now but I certainly feel a great sense of pride knowing how Philippine Airlines has methodically recovered and will soon be flying into destinations that were once part of our national flag carrier’s network of operations until the country got blacklisted by the US and the EU for governmental mismanagement in the past.

Just the fact that PAL has singularly been given approval among local carriers to resume operations in Europe says a lot about the airline’s standards of quality. Equally note worthy was PAL’s strategic moves such as purchasing a fleet of 65 aircraft from a European manufacturer because this undoubtedly played up the importance of cooperation among international companies as well as nations in terms of business. In addition it was a prudent management move to improve operational costs and efficiencies with new aircraft that customers always like.

By purchasing a fleet of planes from AIRBUS, PAL signified its trust in European manufacturing quality as well as willingness to invest in the European economy. Having been extended the hand of partnership and trust, it would have been folly for the European Community to snub such an expensive and sincere gesture that helps their economy and maintains jobs. This point was made clear by the British Minister of Trade who recently commented that every time an airplane is ordered, manufactured and delivered from Europe, chances are the plane would have “British-made” components such as wings, avionics or instrumentations and especially the legendary Rolls Royce engines that are on many airplanes flying around the world.

I heard this comment last week, when PAL president Ramon Ang along with the UK Minister of Trade lord Stephen Green of Hurstpierpoint and the British Ambassador Asif Ahmad made the joint announcement of the resumption of Philippine Airline Flights to London the first of which will be on November 4. Not only were the two British officials happy that PAL’s aircraft acquisitions were contributing to British aviation industry, PALs resumption of flights into London-Heathrow airport would certainly result in a direct increase in tourist arrivals, incidental business from stop-over passengers and commercial as well as trade related investments by virtue of the direct 13-hour flight between Manila and London.

Of course it goes without saying that PAL’s presence in London will be ideal for the 250 thousand Filipinos residing in the UK as well as the thousands of other Pinoys who use London as a hub from other destinations. When asked what can be expected from the British in terms of reciprocity, Lord Green revealed that a high-level delegation led by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Trade Secretary Greg Domingo will be leaving for UK sometime this week and subsequently a similar delegation from England would be doing likewise. Lord Green conceded that officials from UK need to pay attention to the Philippines because there is now what he calls a NEW Philippines that is attractive in terms of trade, investment and cross cultural exchanges.

I also learned from PAL President Ramon Ang that once PAL settles in with their London operations, they will certainly be aiming at other European destinations such as Amsterdam and probably Paris all of which ideally will be in sometime middle or late 2014. In addition to these, PAL is already working on their plans for the Middle East which all of us should really pray for because it will be best for everyone that Filipinos fly with their Flag Carrier; Philippine Airlines.

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