Readers Take Over
The Philippine Star
March 25, 2002

Today, the readers have the floor.

Paging First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and MMDA Chairman Ben Abalos.

An E-mail from Herminio A. Liwanag:
"I have been regularly reading your column at the Philippine Star and I find your subjects very appropriate and timely. May I request you to please write/remind the appropriate government agencies on the following concerns:
1) "Smoke belching is too rampant and despite the enactment of the Clean Air Act, not much has improved. I suggest the full enforcement of the law, and we can start with EDSA since this is the so-called show window of Metro Manila. Or get a categorical reply from the appropriate government agency on why smoke belching is being tolerated. Instead of our policemen using masks to protect them from smoke belchers, why don't they just apprehend (smoke belchers). I would like to call on our First Gentleman Mike Arroyo to spearhead the campaign to open all our eyes to the air pollution as this is affecting everyone.
2) "I have noticed that even during peak hours (7am to 10am and 5pm to 7pm) at EDSA, there are many buses that are half-filled. Thus, the buses race with each other and line up at intersections to pick up passengers, contributing again to air pollution. If indeed MMDA lifted the color-coding for buses at EDSA, this did not really help to raise the income of bus companies and their drivers since they compete for a fixed number of passengers. Had there been less buses, these would have been just enough passengers, and traffic and pollution would have been less. Please get a categorical reply from MMDA Chairman Ben Abalos."

Terrifying and Frustrating Concerns About LPG

Bernie Q. Domingo sent this e-mail reacting to our columns of 1st and 4th March about LPG issues:
"The issue on your column is terrifying and disastrous at the very least. Can the three oil majors come up with a program in helping the consuming public to minimize if not totally eradicate this menace? There seems to be no hope from our government; the corrupt and highly politicized system will only make this problem even worse."

A housewife, Lydia Pasion, of Tondo, Manila, wrote saying:
"As a common housewife with two children, it terrified me of the information you had published. My question now is what is the government going to do with the 42,000 (defective) cylinders that the Korean-owned company still has in the market today?
"How can the government allow such practice knowing that we, the housewives and children, are the ones who are most of the time at home?
"It is like having a time bomb inside your kitchen waiting to explode. Isn't that a very scary and alarming feeling? I hope you can provide us with some more information regarding this."

A shocking reaction from Alfredo G. Mariano of Sta. Cruz, Manila:
"I am really shocked that this type of problem exists in our LPG industry. It really is much to my amaze that such an industry that attends to the needs of every household in our country is unregulated and existing regulations are violated. What kind of government officials do we have? This type of nonsense should immediately be stopped. I hope you will continue to expose the unscrupulous practices and violations in the LPG industry."

And finally, two frustrated e-mails from Cora Quines:
"How can we prevent accidents caused by unsafe cylinders? How do we know if we are being cheated by dealers who sell underfilled LPG cylinders? To whom shall we complain if we encounter such a problem?"

After being informed to call the Dept. of Energy (DOE) and/or the Dept. of Trade & Industry (DTI), Cora e-mailed again saying:
"I've reported this problem to DTI/DOE. Wala pa rin nangyari. Tuloy pa rin ang anomalya. I don't think the government is determined to solve this problem."

Much Ado, Nothing to Show

Jerry Quibilan of Ilocos Sur writes:
"On 28 August 2001, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her Cabinet decided to employ the services of McKinsey Global Institute to conduct the (micro-economic) study under the direction of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). The study is expected to pinpoint sectors in the economy where micro-economic reforms are required which clear obstacles to growth in these specific sectors and which improve productivity that are crucial to overall economic growth.
"According to Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao, and I quote 'This research will be completed in four to six months.' Six months have come and gone and we have not heard or read of any developments. It is my prayer that we will soon know how the study went, what areas need reforms, and how to act on these desired reforms.

***

I leave for the Holy Week some truisms courtesy of Rey Marquez of Magallanes Village, Makati City:

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism."
"No one is listening until you make a mistake."
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
"If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before."

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