WE can’t blame our public utility drivers and owners if they stage strikes every now and then and paralyze the transport system in the metropolis.
Theirs is a legitimate gripe: Fuel prices are always increasing so that today, the joke is the only thing that goes down is the pants.
But kidding aside, it’s really true.
Many of them could barely make both ends meet, what with the high cost of living being perennially almost not within their reach anymore as prices of basic services and necessities are always up, up and away.
OK, notice that, at times, fuel prices would go down, too. But, alas, they happen but not after they have gone up and up and up.
The disparity of fuel prices going up and going down is such that the lowering of gas prices has never out-lapped the increase aspect of the equation.
Look at the prices today: As I was writing this, the difference between a liter of diesel fuel and the unleaded is almost P13. That, simply, is too much to bear for people driving on nondiesel engines.
In Metro Manila and outlying areas, the cost of unleaded gas per liter is about P55. Too much, indeed!
I was in Bacolod last week for almost five days and the price of unleaded fuel there is almost P60 per liter. That is why every now and then, too, they mount transport strikes there.
Before the deregulation of fuel prices in 1998, unleaded gasoline only cost P12 per liter. Some 13 years later, the cost has upped to almost P60 per liter. Diesel fuel then was only P8 per liter but today, it’s almost P45 to a liter.
What’s happening?
They say fuel prices here are dictated by the international price movements of crude oil. But the truth of the matter is, it has always been Singapore’s call that determines fuel prices in the country.
We are actually always groping for answers as to why fuel prices are erratic to the detriment of the common tao, to say the least. Our government seems to not be of help, either, especially the Department of Energy, which seems to be always scarce in times of the people’s distress and unrest.
Perhaps, we’d be better off if deregulation is reimposed?
Lemon Law again
THE Lemon Law is in the news again, possibly because of several news of recall of vehicles found to suffer from factory defects?
In a nutshell, the Lemon Law is there to protect car buyers who end up buying a vehicle with a factory defect.
It provides a mechanism to protect the buyer, who can return his newly purchased, brand-new vehicle either for a refund or a replacement of vehicle.
The law has been with us for some time now, but nobody seems to know how to go about it. And why there is a “new” one today, the House Bill 4841 otherwise known as the Lemon Law of 2011, adds up to the confusion.
Actually, the law has been with us for years, if not decades. Trouble is, its implementing guidelines are somewhat muddled—if not totally nonexistent.
Why a buyer needs to go through the ordeal of dealing with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to seek redress is mind-boggling.
In other countries, like the US and Japan, all one needs is for a car buyer to present the vehicle in question to the dealer where the vehicle was purchased and, voilà, the problem is solved right there and there. No government mediation, if not intervention.
The trouble with us is, we love to do things the complicated way. A simple one becomes complex, usually necessitating too many paper work and too many people to attend to one, noncomplex problem. Result: More often than not, matters get worse and the issue reaches the courts for costly litigation.
It’s about time this Lemon Law got the backbone it sadly lacks and had the teeth to bury into the meat of the matter, which is that a lemon vehicle be either replaced or returned and get the refund for its price.
That simple.
Honda recalls 19,143 vehicles
HERE’S a salute to Honda, which recently asked its buyers to bring their units to replace the power window master switch assemblies of affected units like the 2005 to 2007 Honda Jazz, 2006 to 2008 City and 2005 to 2006 CR-V.
Honda said some car fresheners get into the power window systems, thereby interfering with the switch mechanism that, over time, the windows break down.
“The resin material of the unit switch is heated and carbonized [by the freshener’s agents],” Honda said. “This may cause smoke and, in a worst case, partial burning of the window switch cover.”
While others may simply turn a blind eye, not Honda and, for that, here’s to Honda Cars Philippines for always being true and honest to its customers.
Edsa Skyway is dream of dreams
IT is but a dream, but don’t you want it to become a reality?
I refer, of course, to the planned Edsa Skyway being trumpeted by the government as in the drawing boards right now. This, after P-Noy arrived from China.
At a whopping cost of P50 billion (or was it $50B?), it will cover the length of Monumento to Baclaran over Edsa, circling around Roxas Boulevard.
Targeted for completion in five years, it could yet be P-Noy’s lasting legacy if and when completed.
I can’t wait to see its fruition.
PEE STOP. Luthgard J. Magturo, who drives a Prius after bequeathing his not-so-old Lexus SUV to his Dad, flies home to Los Angeles today with his son, Lukey, after a monthlong vacation. Lukey, 5, says he’ll miss the Sadiwa sis-brod tandem of Mayasoh, 6, and Ilak, 3. Bon voyage...Mitsubishi’s Montero has factory defects? Baloney! If at all, that might just be another smear campaign, the Montero being the blockbuster seller that it has been all this time. So, carry on Froi D. Nothing to worry about … Jun and Ofel Magturo bid their own farewell on September 26, happy with the thought that their son, Mike, had tied the knot with Candy Neri with nary a hitch. Also LA-bound, Jun and Ofel tell me that what they will miss most, again, are our food, particularly Dante T. Fernandez’s adobong chicken feet (adidas) and the pata tim of Ching J. Fernandez for Jun, and Tootsie’s crispy pata in Tagaytay and the paco-cum-kesong-puti salad of Sol F. Juvida for Ofel. Till then, love birds….
