Lawless Philippines: The Illegal Gas Trade in the Philippines

The issue of the illegal gasoline trade in the Philippines is rather tricky when it should be cut and dry. It is illegal to transport, store, and sell gasoline unless you are following all the rules listed by the Department of Energy as laid out in their circular PROVIDING FOR THE RULES AND REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE BUSINESS OF RETAILING LIQUID PETROLEUM PRODUCTS.  The rules should be rather obvious without having to read them. One needs proper permits and proper equipment to sell, transport, and store gasoline. End of story.

But not end of story. This law, like other laws, is overlooked because of sympathy for impoverished folks trying to make a living. This is why vendors are allowed to obstruct roads and sidewalks. A misguided compassion for the poor is no excuse to ignore the law. For instance those illegal vendors often block traffic and harass passers-by. Why should anyone have to deal with that when city officials are paid to enforce the laws which prevent it from happening?

Filipinos do any and everything they can to make ends meet, even illegally selling gasoline by the liter from Coca-Cola bottles. Before it can be transferred to Coke bottles it has to be pumped out and transported.

I talked to the guys loading this up and was told that each container holds 20 liters and that there were 180 of them. That is 3,600 liters or 951 gallons of gasoline. They were transporting this to a town about 2 hours away during a time when there were quarantine checkpoints all over the place.

Looks safe huh? Looks like a proper storage vehicle for thousands of liters of gasoline. Here is the same truck brazenly stocking up in the afternoon.

The next step is getting it to the consumer. Just how is the gas transferred from the containers to the bottles? Like this:

I passed this guy once before and I saw him sucking on that tube. Sadly I did not get a picture. Whether through oral suction or other means the gasoline is siphoned out of the container and into the bottles. There is both premium and regular gasoline as evidenced by the color.

Everybody sells their gasoline differently. Some people set out their crates and wait for passing vehicles to stop.

I have only ever seen this particular seller in the early morning. Never in the afternoon. Other people advertise their illegal gasoline business differently.

It is rather shameless to have a large sign in the front of your house advertising your illegal gasoline business. It's not at all different from having a sign with, "SHABU" writ large to attract customers.

What is to be done? This is not a victimless crime. Transporting thousands of liters of gasoline in unsafe containers is a danger to everyone. The potential for disaster is great. It does not matter if such a tragedy has not happened or ever will happen. It could happen and that is a problem that is easily preventable. 

This issue of potentiality vs actuality illustrates what is wrong with the Philippines. Actual problems start off as potential problems. But no-one seems to have the foresight or the fortitude to prevent actual problems by taking steps to reduce the potential of them occurring. It's as if everyone here says, "Screw the rules because nothing has happened yet. We will deal with it then." That is why there is so much disorder in this country. Filipinos do not think potential problems are real problems which is why there are so many actual problems. And then they somehow think those actual problems can be rectified in a few months or weeks when they are the result of decades of neglect. This scenario touches every problem in the Philippines from the issue of polluted waterways to endemic corruption in the government. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

There are a lot more questions here such as how does one get involved in this trade in the first place and how do illegal traders convince petrol stations to fill their containers? It's a problem that is not going away. Make no mistake, it is a problem. It is a shame and a danger that the PNP does not enforce this law.