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EVERYBODY’S talking about it.
The
almost unabated oil-price increases in the world market
have been wreaking havoc on all parts of the globe,
except Antarctica and the North Pole (but of course).
Only a
while back, the price of one barrel of oil was $30.
Today, it is $130 per barrel, give or take a dollar or
two. It had climbed to a staggering $146 briefly in
May.
In
America, it used to be that the price of one gallon of
gas was not even a dollar. Today, it’s almost $5 a
gallon. The increase has hopped approximately to almost
400 percent!
Closer
to home, it’s becoming worse virtually on a daily
basis! It was not even P10 per liter of gas not too long
ago. Today, it’s almost P62 a liter.
Can you
blame Pedro Siraniko if he’d suddenly run berserk and
torch every gas station in sight?
Everything is almost dependent on oil; affected most are
man’s basic needs: food, shelter and clothing.
A kilo
of rice in Manila was below P20 some two months back;
it’s now P35.
Public-utility fares in the metropolis have been upped
to almost unreasonable levels so that we now rarely see
one passenger smiling when he/she climbs his/her ride
going to the office and back.
Poultry
products, marine wealth, veggies and fruits, milk for
kids and adults, cooking oil, LPG, rentals, clothing,
even skin lotions and hairspray, hairpins and napkins,
soft drinks and hard drinks, name it, they’ve all become
virtually a rich man’s domain.
Can you
blame poor Juan if he’d suddenly decide to pawn his soul
to Tambunting’s or Ablaza’s or Lhuillier’s?
Everything’s going up, except Ate Glow’s trust rating.
Is there
hope in the horizon? Is the sun really shining behind
those “clouds of doubt”?
Ate
Glow’s coming up with her report card on Monday, July
28, her penultimate Sona while being entrenched in the
highest office of the land since 2001.
Will her
July 28 talk, a.k.a. monologue, mean anything to a
wounded people, its patience on the cliff, reeling under
the weight of a universal barrage whose reversal of form
isn’t forthcoming despite Ate Glow’s glowing promises to
the contrary?
Have you
seen any major change or impact on Juan’s daily life, as
a result of Ate Glow’s 10-point program unveiled in
2007?
C’mon,
give us a break.
It’s not
funny anymore.
Mar
Roxas has said Ate Glow has P1.3 trillion in her
coffers.
“Why
can’t she put it to good use to alleviate the sufferings
of our people?” Roxas asked a radio broadcaster. “She
should stop collecting taxes from oil companies to ease
the burden subsequently transferred to our people as a
result of this government practice.”
Has
Roxas started firing his salvos in preparation for his
2010 presidential ambition?
Whatever, I think I see some sense in his tirades.
Ate Glow
counters that the collected taxes are siphoned back to
the people through subsidies in food and other
services. Just recently, she had unloaded P4 billion
toward this end.
“Monies
that go to government are often waylaid along the way,”
said Roxas. “Stop the E-VAT and other taxes on oil and
our people will greatly benefit from this move. The P6
million or so that the government regularly collects
from such taxes do not really redound to the benefit of
the public because they do not go directly to public
welfare and benefits.”
Oh,
well, well, am I going off-tangent?
Uh-oh, I
guess so.
So, back
to the automotive business.
It is
all too obvious that the pain at the pump has been
terribly affecting us.
But is
it also hurting the car business in the country?
I guess
not, if we base our premise on the current activity of
the motoring business: very much alive and kicking, as
new models keep cropping up left and right!
Yes,
America may be reeling from the oil-price blows and
sales have been going on in record lows, especially
among the big, gas-guzzling V8 segment.
Today,
smaller sedans from Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Mitsubishi,
Nissan and even the Ford Focus have been out-boxing the
perennially best-selling trucks (pickups) out of the
preferred column of purchases. In May alone, the small
car has finally dislodged the truck as the monthly
bestseller nationwide in America—the first time it
happened since December 1993.
In the
Philippines, it has not been officially happening—n’yet.
“No, we
are fine here, thus far,” said Rick Baker, Ford
Philippines’ top honcho, echoing somewhat the sentiment
of the times during the launch of the famed 8th Henry
Ford Awards for Motoring Journalism. “Campi has said
the industry is well on its target to sell 165,000 units
this year.”
Auto
recession?
Like
Rick, I can hardly feel it myself.
Pee
stop. My
dear friend Atty. AGA, who drives a two-door Benz, has
invited me to join the Kinder Golf at Unit 410, Level 4,
Shangri-La Plaza Mall on Edsa corner Shaw, Mandaluyong
City, on Sunday, July 27, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. “Please
invite your friends, too, who may have three-year-old
kids and above wishing to learn the basics of golf.” So,
there. Everybody’s welcome! |
