OH MY GAS!

Jayvee dela Fuente (extreme left), SEAOIL VP for corporate and consumer marketing; and Rey Jimenez (extreme right), SEAOIL senior manager for marketing communications; with Lifetime Free Gas Promo winners Jeffrey Olasa (2017), Monica Poliquit (2017) and Michael Zedrick Sulit (2018).

On this planet, where oil prices fluctuate weekly if not daily, a lifetime supply of free gasoline seems like a dream. But in our country, a lifetime supply of free gas is actually a possibility, thanks to SEAOIL.

The leading independent fuel provider in the Philippines, SEAOIL has been conducting a “Lifetime Free Gas, Oh My Gas!” promo every year since 2017.

In theory if not in fact, Lifetime Free Gas (LFG) could be entered in the Guinness Book of Records since it is the only promo of its kind in the world.

Over the past two years, SEAOIL has awarded eight winners a lifetime supply of gas.

Every December, for the rest of their lives, they will each receive gift cards worth P60,000 which they can use to load gas (or diesel fuel) free of charge at any SEAOIL station any time.

SEAOIL stations offer Extreme 97, Extreme 95, Extreme U, Extreme Diesel Fuels and SEAOIL

Lubricants.

TIMETABLE. This year, the “Oh My Gas!”

promo began on July 18 and ends on October 18, 2019.

During this period, anyone who loads at least P500 worth of SEAOIL fuel or SEAOIL lubricant (single or accumulated) at any SEAOIL station nationwide gets a raffle coupon to fill up and drop in a dropbox.

Customers who register their entries online at www.lifetimefreegas.com can double their chances of winning in the raffle draws.

The cut-offs for submission of online entries are at 11:59 p.m. on the 18th day of August, September and October in order to qualify for the first, second and third electronic raffle draws.

The cut-off for submission of raffle coupons at SEAOIL stations dropboxes is 11:59 p.m. October 18, to qualify for the November dropbox raffle draw.

Aside from LFG, customers can win over 100,000 instant prizes through peel-off cards attached to the raffle coupons. SEAOIL GCs worth P10,000 will also be won by 15 lucky participants in each raffle draw.

THE WINNERS

The first LFG winner in 2017 was MONICA POLIQUIT, 39, a resident of Pasig City.

A mother of five, four of whom are two sets of twins, Ms Poliquit works as the executive assistant to her father, who is the president of the family’s real estate and property management business in San Juan City.

Monica says she used to be a home school mom until her eldest, a girl, reached the age of 11. It was then that her father persuaded her to help with the family business, which leases out condominium units in Greenhills.

She uses the free gas to bring the children to school, go to work, run errands, watch ballet performances with her kids, and go to church.

Monica attends services and Bible study sessions at the evangelical Christian Victory Church in Pasig.

“The Lifetime Free Gas allows us to save the money to buy gas and use it for other things, such as day trips and family outings,” Ms Poliquit said.

“Ever since we won the free gas, we have travelled farther by car than we used to, like Zambales and Bolinao, Pangasinan.”

She shares her LFG gift cards with her family and friends, but gives many away.

“If you are blessed, share your blessings with other people,” she concluded with a smile.

JEFFREY OLASA, 48, submitted a bunch of hurriedly filled-up raffle coupons before the 11:59 p.m. deadline on October 18, 2017.

“I was loading gas at SEAOIL about half an hour before midnight that day in October when the pump boy handed me a raffle coupon, and reminded me that it was almost deadline,” he recalls.

Olasa remembered that he had stacked a lot of empty raffle coupons in the glove compartment of his vehicle, so he took them all out and began filling them up.

He managed to insert all the filled-up coupons in the dropbox before 11:59 p.m.

“It was a blessing in disguise, hoarding some 20 or 30 coupons until October,” he said, “because one of them turned out to be the winning coupon in the November dropbox raffle draw – if it wasn’t the last one I submitted.”

Olasa lives in San Miguel town, Iloilo province, outside Iloilo City, where he owns and operates a silk screen paint shop that prints tee shirts, tarps, signages, streamers, Paneflex signs, and school I.D.s.

His wife, a barangay official, is the shop’s bookkeeper.

Since he has clients in Iloilo City, Olasa has been using his free SEAOIL gas to deliver the clients’ orders as an extra service without charge.

The free delivery service has gained him referrals and new clients.

Including his shop’s delivery service and trips taking his daughter to and from school, Olasa calculates that he uses P9,000 to P10,000 worth of SEAOIL GCs every month.

“In effect, I save spending on gas for seven months from December, when the gift cards are given to me, until July,” he said.

At the time of the interview last week, Olasa had used up all the GCs he got in December 2018.

But no worries. Next December and every December for the rest of his life, Olasa will receive P60,000 worth of SEAOIL gift cards.

ZEDRICK SULIT, 25, is the youngest Oh My Gas! winner.

An M.B.A. Economics graduate of the Pamantasan Lungsod ng Maynila who works as a dealer coordinator of PSBank, Sulit received his SEAOIL GCs for the first time in December 2018.

He was awarded P70,000 worth of GCs instead of only P60,000, because he had registered his raffle coupons online and had won in the October 2018 electronic raffle draw.

Because of his LFG award, Sulit says he has extra disposable income for his Suzuki Ertiga, his first brand-new car, not only to gas up, but also to pay for the Land Transportation Office registration, motor vehicle insurance, and PMS (preventive maintenance service.)

“The money saved from the GCs can also be spent on dates and out of town trips,” he said. Since he is from Bataan and his girlfriend is from Batangas, they drive out of town a lot.

Sulit enjoys playing basketball on weekends, outings with friends and food trips with his girlfriend, who is a teacher and eager to explore.

Since Sulit allocates about P5,000 worth of GCs a month, the LFG prize lasts him one whole year until the month of December rolls around, and SEAOIL sends him more GCs.

The lifetime supply of free gas has made him think about getting married and settling down with his girl friend of 10 years.

“Maybe we will get married, but she wants to take her M.A. in Special Education first,” Sulit disclosed with a grin.