Wednesday, November 21, 2007 Carvajal: More than oil By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
IF the world runs on oil, and it certainly does, then it is no small blessing to have your own oil. The decision, therefore, to dig for oil in Tañon Strait is a no-brainer. However, minimizing collateral and incidental damage will require not only brains but also heart.
With the quick decision to dig should come the deliberate commitment (heart) to provide safety nets for the local fisherfolk. We cannot attempt to provide for the future welfare of our people by closing our eyes to the present plight of those who will be immediately disadvantaged by the drilling.
More than just oil is our need for a genuine commitment to help our poor both on the short and long terms. Without this, once oil flows, who knows if it might just marginalize our poor even more? The economic advantage that oil will bring might just improve the take of the corrupt and greedy in our midst, the poor left content with the droppings from their table.
More than oil we also need discipline the lack of which is a major contributor to our wasteful and environmentally destructive ways of using this critical resource. If we are undisciplined, hence wasteful and destructive, the oil that Tanon strait will produce might just make us even more wasteful, more destructive.
We waste a lot of oil when we do not have designated stops for public transport vehicles to pick up or unload passengers. A jeepney stops to pick up a passenger, goes on its way and stops again for another passenger even before it could shift to the next gear. Authorities know this stop-and-go operation wastes a lot of gas. But nobody seems to be doing anything about it. If we waste gas now that it is expensive, how much more when we have it and it is cheap?
We destroy the environment when we throw garbage, including used oil, just anywhere we damn please. When we destroy the environment we deprive our children of their right to the use of the same earth’s resources. More than oil we need the discipline to use it or any other resource in a responsible manner.
The time to act is now before any substantial oil deposit is discovered. Once oil is found big businessmen and politicians will be looking to grab most of the benefits, leaving the poor to the usual trickle effect. Nobody will rethink our economic system anymore since everybody will presume our own oil will have more than the usual trickle effect on the rest of the people.
Unfortunately, this is not a given. Countries with oil exist whose poverty incidence is worse than that of the Philippines. The only way to ensure that the subsistent fishermen will not themselves become the sacrificial lambs for future oil is to take care of them now. More than oil, this country needs heart.
