Eureka, a fulfilling oilfield!

TBy HERE is plenty of hope and promise of a better life for many with the well site of the new Alegria Oilfield Polycard-3 in Cebu province turned on by President Duterte last Sunday.

With the oil project, there will be business prospects and employment opportunities for the locals, as well as for those rushing in from several places in the province.

The oilfield in Alegria is awesome – 197,000 hectares, with 42,749 hectares allotted to production area alone.

In his talk on the occasion, the Chief Executive was full of optimism. He predicted a massive migration to the town of Alegria “that will result in expansive human and economic development” in the locality.

Adding to the exuberance of other national and local government officials present on the continued production of the oilfield was the fact that the Spanish name of the town means blessedness and happiness in English, some cheerful observers noted.

Some interesting facts and figures about Alegria’s oilfield were not disclosed at the Sunday event. Like, an estimate of the number of barrels of crude oil underneath the town; What type of crude is being siphoned off – “sweet” crude or sulphuric, and for how many years the field will continue to produce.

Of course, we are ecstatic about Malampaya. But what the public is getting every now and then is sadly dismaying.

For example, there is this persistent report that Malampaya does not compensate the local government unit nor has it been fairly been paying taxes to the national government, as mandated by law.

A few of those in the know may cast doubt of Alegria’s potentials, given some distressing experiences in the past of the other so-called “oil discoveries” in the country, including the phony ones.

The first “oil strike” that I can recall also happened somewhere in the Visayas in the 1950s. It seemed that a local politician knew that hundreds of barrels filled with crude oil and gasoline had been left buried by the retreating Japanese Imperial Army in his hometown. And the bounty was right in his property.

He decided to make a few pesos out of the buried commodities. He announced to his constituents that he had discovered a big oil deposit in his property and would welcome investors for a joint venture. It was covered by media.

Only a few fell for the politician’s “commercial venture.” And in no time at all, the spurting oil underneath dried up and our prospector disappeared from his town.

Then the Sulo Seas oil exploration in the early 1970s is still fresh in the memory of many. One fellow who made “a killing” in the stock market where the venture was listed was a Mindanaoan who used to work for a commercial bank.

At the height of the frenzy for possession of a few hundreds shares of the southern oil gambit, friends of the guy even begged him to let them buy some shares. It is told that the guy would issue ORs written even on table napkins.

The craze did not last long, as is of any business activity that is tarnished in alleged legerdemain.

Some years later, when business writers bumped into investors of the exploration to inquire about what caused its premature demise, the investors would chorus, – “Ayan, parepareho kaming nalunod!”

Some amateur profiling practitioners and tyro cartographers had a field day last Monday explaining the expression and pose of the four personalities present at the ceremonial valve opening at Alegria.

The subjects were caught by news photographers and the shot made it to the front page of this newspaper Monday, May 21.

President Duterte, with crossed arms, was shown unsmiling as DOE Secretary Cusi spoke. The Cabinet man had the visor part of his hardhat dropped down covering his eyes so that the public would not recognize him in case the oil production did not meet expected output.

Secretary Andanar, towering behind the other officials, looked worried that pessimists out there might label the occasion a fake news. Secretary Bong Go did not put on his hardhat for added full facial recognition to boost his coming senatorial candidacy. He also seemed to be thinking of using the oil-producing occasion as one of his campaign attractions