Pilipinas, you need to work

Diesel pump prices to go up 3 pesos per liter

Apparently the oil companies have caught on. Since oil prices have been rising every week, Filipinos have turned to diesel engines since they have always been cheaper at the pump. But starting this weekend, the prices will rise up by 3 pesos which brings it closer to regular unleaded gasoline.

Unleaded will go up by P1.00 to once again break the P60 mark to P60.57. This brings the price of Manila gasoline beyond the $5.00 mark once again.

MRT-3 ridership reaches half a million daily

While I was away, the price of unleaded gasoline did finally breach P60.57. Which brought the prices of gas to $5.19 a gallon in the Philippines. Oil companies reduced the price of gas yesterday by 1 peso or by almost 4 cents. But expect it to rise by next week.

People are turning to the trains as an alternative to using the car but is it enough? It doesn’t seem that traffic is getting any easier. Because what we need is a real mass transportation system. Our country has spent that past 20 years, while our neighbors dug more tunnels and expanded their railways in the city, we removed ours. Now when we finally need it, we have to wait at least five years before it gets here. The MRT was already ridden with anomalies and corruption. I know this for a fact first hand. Now is not the time. But of course, one can never be too greedy in this country.

We are feeling brunt of all the politics and greed that runs this nation. The sins of our past are now here to haunt us. Inept leaders of government and all the bureaucracy that has tied projects like this down in the past has come to make us suffer for it today. It is unfair to blame it to the current administration since they too are powerless to events that are happening globally. Face it peeps, you’re not the only one suffering in the world.

The one thing that people don’t seem to realize that you must make drastic lifestyle choices to see this global economic crunch through. There are a lot of things that I used to buy and used to do, I don’t anymore since I’m trying to save up some cash. I would love to take public transportation. I usually take the trains in almost every city I go to. Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, Vienna, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, it’s everywhere but here?! These cities have long expansive rails that take their citizens practically everywhere they need to go. Here, I have to take my car.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my car. But driving is a total pain. What makes driving around in Manila expensive is all the gas you waste while you’re in traffic. I have to pay separately from train to bus to jeep to tricycles. Tricycles are such an eye sore. It’s a sign on how far your country is sinking. It’s not a solution to transportation if these public vehicle licenses are being issued just as much as a driver’s license. It just adds more congestion to the already congested streets and it doesn’t make it any easier to the regular car driver that these moving chicanes have to stop at every corner.

I want someone who can clean up the streets. Literally. I want to see only buses, taxis and private cars on the street and everyone else taking the train. No tricycles. You have feet! Start walking. It’s healthier. Jeeps?!? Probably as shuttles but not from one end of the city to the other.

The hard part about all of this is that I want to live long enough to see all these changes happen. Yeah, I can dream on. But it shouldn’t be just a dream it should be our goal.

Once again prices at the pump went up another P1.50 this Saturday bring the average price of gas to P59.57. Barely hitting the P60 mark this makes Manila gas prices at around $5.16 a gallon. And it’s really hurting.

What used to cost me a full tank is now only half a tank. I fill up every two weeks and on Thursday. That allows me to avoid the long lines at the pump every Friday night. I’ve changed the way I drive and get gas. I think I’m saving some money. Luckily I haven’t reached the point where I may have to take my bicycle to work yet.

Obviously I was away from my computer last week and thus no new posts until yesterday. So here I am taking on gas prices again. One liter at the pump now costs P58.07. That’s another P1.50 increase from my last gas post. This brings the price of gasoline in Manila past the $5 a gallon mark.

Beat that California. We’ve got higher gas prices than you and nobody seems to be using less energy here. No real mass transportation, no investigation on why pump prices are going up this fast.

Yesterday I predicted a P2 increase in gas prices in Manila. I was wrong. It turns out to be P1.50. That is such a big difference. Maybe they’ll do the P2 next week.

Gasoline will go up another P2. This will bring the average price of gas per liter to P57.07. The current exchange rate is about $1=P44.50. This will bring a gallon of gas in the Philippines to $4.84 a gallon. If you track back at my previous posts, that’s a rate of almost $1 a month. At this rate the Philippines will get to the $5/gallon before the U.S. does.

Bus driver in EDSA road rage shooting dies

It happens. It happens not only in the Philippines but in other countries as well. The courts have convicted two to life imprisonment for road rage. What made those cases really sad was that they were the ones who were committing the traffic offense and not the victim. But what about in this case?

If you’ve read any of my previous posts in this blog is that I have no love for public transportation in the Philippines, most especially buses and jeeps. Their blatant disrespect for other drivers, lanes, and total lack of road courtesy is what makes driving in Manila a real pain. You can ask any private vehicle driver in Manila that public vehicles are a menace on the streets. It’s actually great when they go on strike. The roads are clear of these irresponsible drivers.

Of course this entire case could be something else other than road rage. But the fact remains, if the traffic cops will not apprehend and discipline drivers on the streets. People will take the law in their own hands. This would not happen if the traffic cops or whoever should be issuing tickets and revoking drivers licenses actually did their job.

As predicted, the price of unleaded gasoline is now P55.07 a liter. In US terms that would be $4.81 a gallon. That’s the cheapest gas around. Premium unleaded will set you back $4.85/ gallon.

This is getting crazy. I’ve been fortunate enough that my car isn’t that addicted to gas as those big SUVs. Diesel is cheaper in Manila but there are also calls from the oil companies to increase it by P11.00. That would put it closer to the unleaded price.

We must reduce our dependence on oil. We’re fortunate enough that we don’t we very cold winters. But we don’t have an efficient mass transportation or open highways. Traffic is the number one cause of gas guzzling as it increases the consumption of gas as you get from point A to B. Mass transportation will reduce this by reducing the number of vehicles on the street.

Let’s face it, there are too many jeeps and buses that clog major highways thus reducing the speed of other motorists. Driving slow doesn’t make you save gas. It’s driving consistently that saves gas. I can get 30km/ liter on my car even at 80kph.

Yes if efficient mass transportation is done, all of these “progressive” groups will complain about the lack of jobs for those jeepney drivers and bus drivers. Well that’s supposed to happen.

The current transportation system is seriously flawed. There are no bus schedules, no clear transportation routes, no map that we can even give a tourist for him to get from Manila to Makati. Bus stops are there but buses stop at all the stops and then some. It’s just a mess. It’s a clear sign of the third worldness of the Philippines. Inefficiency.

Perhaps that’s why we feel the pain of high gas prices.

Manila Bay’s pollution bill: P4 billion

This reminds of me of the Simpsons Movie where Springfield was isolated from the rest of the world because they became the most polluted city in the world by dumping raw sewage in the lake. Sound familiar? Except Manila hasn’t been encased in a glass dome…yet.

I remember my father saying that the Pasig River was blue when he was a child growing up in Manila. Unfortunately for many generations since, it’s either brown or black. A friend didn’t even count it as water. And 60% of it contributes to the pollution in Manila Bay.

We may have a picture perfect sunset, but the water isn’t so.

It is not only the lack of political will but also the lack of public support. With communities of shanty towns that live near the waterways and coastline, with no proper sewage treatment what can we expect? It’s already bad enough that there isn’t a proper waste management system in the country, I don’t think that there is even a water treatment facility in the city.

Sigh, the government is pointing fingers on who should clean it up. Everyone should clean it stupid. Every city that the water ways pass through. Every government agency should chip in.

Wouldn’t we want a clean city? I think we could if we all tried. Even at home, practice proper waste management and recycling. Ensure that garbage is disposed of properly. Don’t just throw it out on the street. Reduce your carbon footprint by using less plastic and reusable containers. It all begins with ourselves and a little help.

If the past three weeks are any indication, I think we can expect prices at the pump to go up at midnight. Gas companies seem to want to jack prices up 2 pesos this Saturday. I think I’m going for gas tonight.