www.soriano-ph.com

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 11 November 2007 Issue

In 1757, they say that Russian scientist Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov is the first to introduce the “biogenic theory”, which holds that fossil or mineral fuels come from fossilized remains of dead plants and animals which through compression, heating and breakdown of bacteria over a long period of geological time produce crude oil and natural gas. 

They say that at least 86 percent of human-produced energy comes from burning fossil fuels, which unfortunately are non-renewable because it takes millions of years to form them and the global reserves are being consumed much faster than the reserves that Mother Nature are supposed to create.

This week prices of oil escalated to as high as above $98 per barrel raising serious concerns about its impact to problematic economies especially in countries like the Philippines which is highly dependent on imported fuel.

Experts say that this record high increases in oil prices are largely attributable to the peaking global demand and the concomitant permanent decline in production of oil-producing nations, not to mention the depreciating value of the US dollar, the continuing American occupation of Iraq that holds the third largest oil reserves in the world, the political tensions in the Middle East, and the approaching winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
 
It is uncertain whether the trend would remain over time or simply a temporary condition.

This twin global malady of oil supply scarcity and price surge would certainly impose a deeper travail of difficulty in the economic life of the Filipino people. It is not as if these concerns are recent.

For more than three decades, each and every political regime of this country has been talking about plans to develop and promote alternative energy sources ranging from nuclear power, geothermal and renewable energy sources, and more recently, bio-fuel.

The last thirty years would have been enough to address the country’s energy supply chain. But the Bataan nuclear power plant is mothballed. Nothing substantial was heard after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo inaugurated the “Malampaya Deep Water Gas-to-Power Project” in October 2001. It is hoped that the 2006 Biofuels Act would not suffer the same fate of apparent oblivion.

The good news, government says, is that the peso exchange rate is getting stronger vis-à-vis the US dollars. But the impact of this improving peso is hardly felt, or maybe would never be felt, by Juan de la Cruz given the adverse economic effects of higher energy and power costs.

The average peso-dollar exchange rate for October 2007 is P44.380 to a US dollar, or approximately 21 percent decline from the highest posted in October 2004 at P56.341. On the other hand, the $98 per barrel just right after the close of last month represents an increase of approximately 77 percent compared to the October 2004 international market price of $55.15 per barrel.

Given these figures that portray the current rate of depreciation of global oil price increase still carrying a net impact of 56 percent as against peso exchange rate appreciation, it would be mathematically difficult for the government to rest on its laurels on the improving exchange rate to resolve the country’s worsening economic condition. Noteworthy of consideration in the equation is the fact that the exchange earnings of overseas workers, which have been fueling consumption spending and keeping the country’s economy afloat for decades, are also depreciating.

As Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service told “The Early Show” of CBS, “I don’t think it’s a question of whether we hit $100. It’s a question of how much time we might spend there”.

There is certainly a good sense to address the oil price issue but there is more urgency for a committed effort and leadership to tackle the country’s energy supply chain.

Some political observers note that the country may not see the day when corruption and poverty is finally over because they are the same perennial problems that drive unscrupulous politicians to remain in power.

Similarly, the country’s energy woes have been recurrent, hopefully, not for the same reason.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) – 5 August 2007 Issue

Italian genius Leonardo da Vinci once said that “water is the driving force of all nature”. 

This chemical substance scientifically consisting of two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to a single atom of oxygen is critical to the existence and for the proliferation of life. 71 percent of the earth’s surface is water.  At least two-thirds of the human body is composed of water.

Evidences of human civilization began and flourished in places where water is abundant. Ancient Egypt has the Nile River.  The great Mesopotamia (now a region of Iraq) had the rivers of Tigris and the Euphrates. It is not a source of wonder why at least two and a half billion people of six nations, including the two most populous China and India, settled and live in the major river systems of the mountain range of the Himalayas. The existence of, and access to, bodies of water also contributed much to the success of prosperous cities like London, New York City, Chicago, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. With only one percent of world’s supply of available fresh water, Middle East countries consider water as a vital resource.

Earth’s water supply is definitely sufficient to sustain human life and other life forms. The balance of water is constant and the water cycle has no beginning and no end for as long as this planet exists in the universe. Water therefore is not a scarce resource but a strategic one. Since water can assume different states (solid, liquid or gas) and could be rendered inutile by contamination, the availability of water needed, and the quality of water fit, for human and life consumption is threatened and results to its scarcity. And this has become a major global concern.

The 2006 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) shares the same point of view. The report rejects the argument that the global water crisis is brought about by the lack of physical supply. It argues that the crisis is attributable “to poverty, inequality and unequal power relationships, as well as flawed water management policies that exacerbate scarcity”. It is for these reasons that in this era of supposed global prosperity, more than a billion people are denied the right to clean water. At least 2.6 billion people are denied access to adequate sanitation. Every year some 1.8 million children die as a result of diseases caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation thereby making unclean water the world’s second biggest killer of children at the start of the 21st century.

With the ‘below-than-normal’ rainfall over a couple of months, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently warned the public to prepare for a possible drought that could eventually result in a water and power shortage. And this has a chilling effect on the Filipino people particularly on the economy, food security, health and sanitation.

Of course, the changing weather or climatic pattern brought about by global warming is the easy culprit for this malady. But the month of August, they say, also produces the most amount of rainfall in this country compared with the other months of the year. Thus, it could be so that by the end of this month, or in the months that would follow, the problem government is facing is no longer about drought but of floods and water-related disasters. Again, blame it to global warming.

Unfortunately, the government and its constituents always seem to take a reactive stance to a nagging problem. No wonder, the fact that the Philippines is an archipelago surrounded by great bodies of water and waterways has not made it until today as one of the most progressive countries in the world.

Water sustains life and a sound proactive management and sustainable use of water resources also makes it a strategic tool for progress.

But more importantly as the UNDP report said: “The unifying principle for public action in water and sanitation is the recognition that water is a basic human right.” And it is part of the government’s social contract to promote, enhance and protect this right.