This afternoon, after coming home from a week-long seminar sponsored by the Judiciary which goals were apparently to inform me on stuff that I already know, I turned on the tele and see what's cookin' on the early evening news. Sure enough, it's still the "LPG Crisis." Womenfolk from Gabriela (an ND [nationalist democratic Earlier this morning, while I was taking a dump, I was reading the hotel-provided Manila Bulletin. Of course, one can only read the Bulletin while sitting on top a toilet bowl. On its head line was something like "NO LPG CRISIS: Says DOE Chief." The line said it all though. There was no real story, just a goddam quote from a dumb guy who happened to be at the right place at the right time. Secretary Reyes--the unofficial spokesman for the Big Three-- is perhaps the dumbest person ever to hold the position of Cabinet Secretary. Save perhaps maybe, Tito Sotto. Even wacky senator Mirriam Defensor-Santiago is insanely unhappy with his performance, or more accurately, the lack thereof.
The problem with LPG is fairly simple and yet one of the most difficult ones facing our little economy. LPG, or Liquefied Petroleum Gas, is a generic commodity. It is an everday fuel we use in our stoves instead of our cars. Meaning, in like manner, it won't really matter if we use Caltex (Chevron), Shell, Petron, PTT, Red Oil, or UniOil in our cars, as long as we use the prescribed formulation (Diesel, Unleaded, or Premium) by our car's manufacturers. Our stoves at homes won't explode if we use Liquigaz this month and Shellane or Gasul in the next. As long as it is LPG, it would be fine and will still cook our food. Again, LPG is a generic commodity, like water and electricity.
One of the supposed benefits of the Oil Deregulation Law (otherwise known as REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8479 AN ACT DEREGULATING THE DOWNSTREAM OIL INDUSTRY AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES) was opportunity for middle-class Filipino businessmen to participate in the petroleum business. Section 2 of the said law provides: "It shall be the policy of the State to liberalize and deregulate the downstream oil industry in order to ensure a truly competitive market under a regime of fair prices, adequate and continuous supply of environmentally-clean and high-quality petroleum products." But to this date, this is just a pipe-dream. The market is still monopolized by the Big Three, the Tatlong Itlogs, or namely Caltex (now Chevron), Shell, and Petron. How do they do it? By keeping government people in their pockets and the police and military under their strings. They are the true strongest families in the Philippines.
The tatlong itlogs have blindfolded the Filipino LPG consumer with campaigns that misinform the public of the true nature of LPG. They market LPG as a brand commodity. They have made us believe that this product is like Coke or Pepsi, Adiddas or Nike, or Technomarine or Tag Heuer. By manipulating the legislature, these big oil companies have created an indestructible legal armor which protects this wrong notion/belief/idea on the nature of LPG. And as brand name products, they are, in the crossed-eyed eyes of Philippine Commercial Law, under the protection of infringement/patent/trademark laws. Think of the Philippines is the Cuban Dream of Michael Corleone and the paradise of a reality to the Big Three.
Many middle-class Filipino businessmen, supposedly publicly represented by the LPGMA (LPG Marketers Association) have entered the LPG market as bulk refillers or in other words, wholesalers of LPG. They cater to the needs of even smaller-scale businessmen who sell LPG in 11 kilogram tanks retail to you and me. These retailers operate their business by investing on LPG tank containers and then selling them to the public individually. It is of common knowledge that when a household buys, it surrenders their own empty tank together with cash in exchange of the tank filled with LPG. Now, these retailers, as it is in every free market, think of every strategy to earn. Some are unscrupulous and underload their supposedly 11 kgs. tank with 10.5 or even 10 kgs. Yet, some are still honest traders. No kidding.
Nevertheless, honest or otherwise, these retailers all face an inevitable dilemma: If they carry only Brand P, or brand P or C but not brand S, and the household consumer's empty tank is the latter brand, will they accept the empty S cylinder in exchange of the P or C brand LPG filled cylinder? In almost all cases, the retailer does not have a choice. In an atmosphere of stiff, if not cutthroat competition, an entrepreneur cannot afford to lose even one loyal customer in order for the business to thrive. Repeat this situation 365 times and within a year, the retailers' cylinders are a mix of brands P, C, S, and as a result of the Oil Deregulation law, even less-known, but as safe and reliable others such as Bayan Gas, or Tiger, or Elxia, or Liquex.
Here comes the true problem: At the beginning, these retailers have their fill of cylinders from usually one source, either from C, or P, or S. But since they now have a collection of tanks/cylinders that look like a box of primary crayons when arranged in their truck, C or P and S will not accept cylinders/tanks other than their own brands. What to do, what to do!
Here comes an independent bulk refiller. In accordance with reason, he choses to refill these assortment of LPG and thinks he makes honest profit from his business. However, this practice was made malum prohibitum by our unreasonable statutes. As a consequence, these independent bulk refillers are constantly plagued with coercion to bribery, harrassment, extortion, and worst, raids by different "lawful" agencies--on the basis of a very reliable report, of course, by "concerned citizens" who always happen to be paid by either one of the tatlong itlogs.
It does not take one to be of the caliber of the economist J.M. Keynes to realize that: When there are less independent refillers, there would be less supply of LPG. When there is less supply of LPG, the Big Three can control/manipulate the price. When the price is manipulated, they go nowhere but up. hen the prices go sky-rocketing, the people suffer. And when the people suffer, they watch more TV to forget their suffering. And when they watch TV, they see the government saying there is no problem, and "everything will normalize soon.".
Our laws, especially those which have something to do with business, instead of fostering an environment that promote and nurture free competition and entrepreneurial growth, discourage the same and strangles the middle-class businessman before he can become rich so he can become poor again. In short, our commercial laws are designed to keep Filipinos poor. Poor as rats in the sewers of old Quiapo.
But laws, by themselves, however twisted and unreasonable they may be, cannot make people poor. The government (technically, the administration) does. During my short lifetime, there has been as many "Special Presidential Task Forces" and "Committees/Fact Finding Commissions/Investigating Panels on everything under the Philippine sun" as there are craters in the moon. They are, however, all designed with the same vile end in mind, to protect the big businesses which keep the rich richer and the pockets of those filthy alligators and snakes in the government fatter and their hands greasier.
A few months ago, this one government official, whose name and face will be forgotten as soon as the tenure of his little lady boss expires, as leader of the PASG (Presidetial Anti-Smuggling Gang) raided and closed down the headquaters of UniOil with their obligatory show of force through the totting of sub-machineguns and automatic rifles--on mere suspicion that the folks at UniOil were performing illegal activities because they price their gas two (2) pesos lower than the other brands! I understand that there is some "political" shades on this particular act, but the same is happenning all over the country. Those who oppose the powers that be shall be crushed by the very government who swore to protect them.
Caveat to us all who do not conspire with the forces who artificially controls the prices of goods such as petroleum-based products! This administration's messages are very clear: Don't fuck with the hands that feed. Screw Free Competition. Fuck Democracy.
And, of course, Die all poor Citizens a slow, painful death.
