Tom: I can ride PUJ to work to save fuel

With Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita’s dare to government officials to help save energy by taking public transportation in going to work, Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday said he would not mind riding a jeepney to City Hall.

“I don’t mind…I can ride the jeep, I can ride the taxi…that’s not a problem with me,” he said but quickly took a turnaround by reasoning out that setting the government-issued vehicles may not work well with the government’s mandate to deliver services most effectively. 

“How can you be effective in doing your job if you rely on the schedule of public transportation?” Osmeña said.

Malacañang, looking for ways to save the country as much as P140 billion a year on fuel expenses alone, told cabinet officials to keep their gas guzzling luxury cars in the garage and set an example by taking the Light Rail Transit or riding the bicycle to work.

Ermita, who heads the newly-formed Presidential Task Force on Energy Contingency, said the country can have a P140 billion savings yearly if vehicles reduce their fuel consumption to even just one liter a day.

Records from the Land Transportation Office showed that there are about 4,211,932 gasoline-driven vehicles and 1,561,935 diesel-fed vehicles in the country.

If gasoline-fed vehicles were to consume one liter less fuel a day at the current price of gasoline of P52 a liter, the savings would amount to more than P219 million a day or P6.6 billion a month, Ermita said.

Osmeña however has a different proposal to this save-money drive of the government. He said the Civil Service Commission must allow local government units to fire even permanent employees who are proven to have abandoned their responsibilities.

“I can save money if the civil service will allow me to fire people who are not doing anything. They don’t have to come to work di ba? O, naka-save nata,” Osmeña said.

Osmeña said there are several employees in City Hall who do nothing but wait for lunch break and the 5pm off but he cannot do anything about them because they are protected by the civil service policy for permanent employees in government.

Osmeña reasoned that city hall’s basic job is to provide the service, thus, “I’d rather see people in city hall out there in the barangays rather than sit in an office here. That’s a general rule.”

“If we are going to keep people here, it’s like having an army where everybody’s in the headquarters. You know, that’s not good. We want them out that’s why we spend for motorcycles, for fuel allowance,” he said.

The Presidential Task Force on Energy Contingency would consolidate and coordinate the country’s energy conservation measures and come up with short-term and long-term plans to cope with rapidly rising oil prices. 

Meanwhile, the police operations in the city have not been affected by the rising cost of fuel because they police have two sources of fuel allocations, said City Police director Patrocinio Comendador.

Comendador told reporters that CCPO’s 77 patrol cars and 10 motorcycles have enough fuel allocations from the City Hall, besides the budget for fuel consumption from the Police Regional Office-7, set aside as reserved fuel.

Comendador said that each of the Mobile Patrol Group vehicles has allocation of 800 liters monthly while the other police vehicles have 200 to 300 liters monthly. The CCPO also has three vehicles issued by the PNP main headquarters.

To minimize fuel consumption, Comendador ordered MPG members to set standby areas while waiting for calls, then move periodically to patrol one area to another.

Comendador said that, unlike the City Hall fuel allocation which is by liters, the PNP’s fuel cash allocation is in fixed amount, which means that when the price goes up, the CCPO could only buy lesser volume of fuel.

Police Regional Office -7 director Chief Supt. Ronald Roderos said the PNP has fuel allocation in cash basis as mandated by the Department of Budget and Management.

He said the PNP have already asked for fuel allocations from local government units and initiate innovative actions to cope with the problem by joining LGU patrols usually done by barangays with patrol vehicles or walk if the destination does not require them to use vehicle.

Roderos said, for the past three months, PNP Chief Avelino Razon have also allocated 50 liters more per month for smaller police stations from other sources. — Joeberth M. Ocao and Edwin Ian Melecio with Ghea Sinajon, STC Intern/RAE