A shocking new proposed law

I borrowed a friend’s 35mm film camera the other day just to fool around with for a week or two. I figured that it couldn’t hurt to shoot the old school way for a while just to put a couple of extra hairs on my chest and to be able to say I paid my dues as a photographer. 

But every time I took a picture of my 6-year-old son, he would reach for the camera and say, “Can I have a look, dad?”, expecting to see the very familiar, 3-inch LCD screen on the back of the camera that could zoom into every pore on his mischievous little face. Trying to explain to him that the image was recorded on film and won’t be ready to look at for a few days was like trying to convince him that people used to send each other handwritten letters in the mail before. 

He just couldn’t grasp the concept of such an inefficient system involving a highly tedious and non-biodegradable process just to capture a simple image. It simply didn’t make any sense to him. And he is absolutely right, too. Technology has revolutionized the way we capture information and communicate, and we now hold in our hands more computing and communication power than NASA could fit in an entire room back in the 60’s. But as ridiculous as that sounds, this is how your grandkids will feel about the internal combustion engine. 

Yup. Sad to say, but the internal combustion engine that we have all come to love has officially been given a use-by date. And if the senate ever get around to passing Senate Bill No. 2856, otherwise known as the “Electric, Hybrid, and Other Alternative Fuel Vehicles Incentives Act”, that could be a lot sooner than you think. 

Authored by Senator Ralph Recto, the bill seeks to abolish excise tax for the next nine years, as well exempt them from the Motor Vehicle User’s Charge, which would make annual registration practically free, plus entitle owners to special plates that would exclude their vehicles from coding. And as an added bonus, there’s also a proposal to have free parking in new establishments. 

Just about every major player has a hybrid or full electric vehicle available right now and is just waiting for less shocking taxes—if you’ll pardon the pun—before they start bringing these in. In fact, Honda Cars Philippines have a couple of demo vehicles already and are just holding their breath for the passing of the bill before it officially sells the Insight and the fantastic new CRZ locally—and although I have yet to try the Insight, after spending 200 kilometers behind the wheel of the CRZ along the winding roads of Ilocos Norte last year, I can say that it brings Toyota 86 levels of excitement to its segment and just needs a few signatures to jumpstart it. 

But as awesome as that is, what is perhaps of greater impact, though, is that this bill also allows local manufacturers to build affordable electric tricycles and jeeps—which could finally be the meteor we’ve all been waiting for that wipes out those dinosaurs we have been trying to pass as public transportation for over 50 years now. 

According to Rommel Juan, president of The Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP), with the passing of SB 2856, they can build an electric tricycle for as low as P200,000, which is about a P50,000 premium on the current gasoline models, but as the numbers ramp up, the prices are sure to go down. They could start off by insisting only new lines use the electric trikes and jeeps until the numbers start evening out for all existing ones to be replaced upon renewal of their franchises.

Our air quality has been at alarming levels for quite some time now. Gasoline is going nowhere else but up. I know there is a process to follow, but it is quite hard to understand why it has taken so long to pass a law that aims to do nothing but good but choose to rush passing one that taxes sin. I’m all for punishment, but it means nothing without reward. And if you insist on setting up expensive, traffic-causing smoke-belching sting operations (despite requiring us to submit to an LTO accredited test during registration), why not allow cars that produce zero emissions exemption from excise tax and coding? Some might call it balance. 

They say you attract more with honey than vinegar, and if the government is at all serious about congestion, pollution and the consumption of a finite resource, they would be working hand in hand with these companies to kick-start a new era of motoring. It has to start somewhere. And SB 2856 seems like the perfect place.