THERE was a time when it could be said that one could do business even without doing e-commerce.
Nowadays however, it could already be said that if one is not yet doing e-business, one is really not doing business at all.
One might also argue that internet access is used mainly for social purposes. While that may be true, what is really happening now is that social activities are intertwined by business activities. Proof of that is the fact that social networking sites are now being used for business, such as “Marketplace” by Facebook.
Many people are now saying that internet access is no longer a luxury because it is already a necessity.
Much more than that, internet access is already an economic need, because it is already a must in order to succeed in business.
In reality, electricity is a commodity that is sold and bought, and there is a system that delivers it from source to the last mile. That system includes the three stages namely production, transmission and distribution.
For example, the National Power Corporation (NPC) does the production, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) does the transmission, and MERALCO does the distribution. I think that that is an ideal system that should be copied as a similar system for water.
Right now, it could be said that the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) does the production side for Metro Manila, while the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) does the production side for the rest of the country.
There is however a break in the chain, because in Metro Manila, both the transmission and distribution functions are done by either Maynilad or Manila Water.
There seems to be a similar break outside of Metro Manila, as all the three stages appear to be monopolized by the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA).
It may be too long ago to remember, but there was a time when cooking gas was a commodity. At that time, Manila Gas Company managed all the three stages namely production, transmission and distribution. For whatever reason, that company is no longer around, and that is why we have retrogressed to the primitive system of distribution by way of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) bottled canisters. That seems to be our unfortunate fate.
We cheered when the government built the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) systems, but little did we know that that is not really a leap in progress, because we already had electric railway cars before, during the time of the Manila Electric Railroad and Light Company, the original MERALCO. After that, we had to make do with buses. Definitely we could not call that progress, so let us call that retrogress. (To be continued)/PN
