Permissions. Hmm. A problem indeed.
If the admin has them set that way, he's either mistaken, or ignorant of your needs, or else he wants them that way. I'd suggest direct communication, and maybe something to help the process along. Are you friends? Become so.....
As to the problem itself, in Apache, sometimes php.ini directives can be placed in a .htaccess file in your directory. Many of them would augment or override settings in php.ini
OTOH, I'm kinda wondering if the premise here is correct. If PHP doesn't grok MySQL functions, I'd suspect the compile process first. And, if you're not the admin, that will definitely be an issue....
G'luck ๐