THE central business district (CBD) of Baguio City has been notorious for having the highest air-pollution concentration in the country—higher than Makati City and Quezon City. From 2003 to 2007, the city recorded the most total suspended particulates (TSPs).
By 2007 the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) started monitoring the finer particles PM10 suspended in air using Continuous Automatic Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System in Metro Manila, Cebu and Baguio City, among other major cities.
From 2007 to 2012, Baguio City registered the highest concentration levels of PM10, measured at 83.2 micrograms per cubic meter (µg per m3), four times the World Health Organization (WHO) Air Quality Guideline for PM10 set at 20 µg per m3, and 40 percent higher than the Philippine Clean Air Act of annual exposure standard of 60 µg per m3.
PM10 are of coarser aerodynamic diameter particles compared to PM2.5, the finer and more hazardous particles and ultrafine particles. Thus, the PM10 machines capture not only coarse particulates but also the finer particulates.
The Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) funded a project to determine the benefits and costs of an alternative mode of public-transportation system to reduce air pollution in the CBD of Baguio. The EEPSEA supports research and training in environmental and resource economics to enhance local capacity to undertake the economic analysis of environmental problems and policies.
Dr. Achilles Costales, a professor of the Department of Economics and Political Science at University of Philippines Baguio (UPB), and Dr. Maria Angela Catelo, a professor in the Department of Economics of UP Diliman (UPD); presented the results of their study at UPB for discussion with concerned stakeholders and academe.
The study was conducted from an economic lens using the cost of illness that air pollution imposes on people plying the CBD and to evaluate the economic benefits of using the electricity-run Automated Guideway Transit (AGT) public-transportation system within the CBD, which was proposed by the Department of Science and Technology-Cordillera Administrative Region (DOST-CAR) to the city to replace the old diesel public-utility vehicles (PUVs).
Statistics on air-pollution-induced diseases were studied from data provided by the Department of Health-CAR, the Baguio Health Department, Baguio City Health Office and seven medical specialists. The cost of treatment data was taken from a random survey of 398 households living within a 1.5-kilometer radius from the CBD’s air-monitoring station. The cost of premature death was calculated using the loss of productivity approach. The study also considered the impact on traffic and PUV incomes after the AGT system is put in place.
In 2013 premature adult deaths (computed up to 65 years old) due to air-pollution-related diseases were at 157 per year, and these attributable cases were valued at P53 million per year from 2013 onward, or a mean of P339,697 for each individual in terms of lost productivity. The figures were estimated in relation to the minimum daily wage in the locality of P280.
The study also indicated that in the same year around 4,758 attributable cases of identified cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses were estimated, accounting for about 22 percent of all cases of such cases of morbidity in Baguio City.
The study result on both the direct cost of treatment (hospitalization, doctor consultations, medication) and the indirect cost of lost work days amounted to around P24 million a year. The estimated total goes up to P77.4 million per year.
By establishing the health risks and economic losses as a result of air pollution due to dirty fuel emissions, the end objective of the study is to move the local government to embark on projects, such as the adoption of the AGT, to reduce air pollution the local residents are exposed to.
The prefeasibility study for the La-Trinidad-Baguio AGT system has just been completed, and the Baguio CBD portion is set to begin. Besides improving the health status of the community, the AGT can boost tourism economy for its quaintness, attractive design and ease of travel. What’s more, it promotes Philippine ingenuity, as it is an all-Filipino invention and creation. The city has taken some significant steps to help improve its air quality. In 2008 Baguio City was one of the first to pass its own Clean Air Act ordinance. There is also the number-coding scheme, roadside inspection penalizing vehicles emitting toxic emissions.
However, perhaps because of weak implementation or the gravity of air pollution, there remains a great need for something more drastic to clean the air. Take, for instance, what the study calls the glaring anomaly that all vehicles failing the roadside emission testing but they pass from private emission-testing centers. The study also poses the challenge—once the health impacts of air pollution are translated to economic values—will this move the government and other sectors to get into the serious business of implementing the law and drastically change the status quo of the transport situation?
One aggressive move is the total banning of public-utility jeepneys (PUJs) in the CBD, and putting in place the alternative mode of the AGT system, a locally manufactured rapid mass-transit system developed by the DOST and the UPD.
This poses a problem for the members of the 40 PUJ associations that perceive it will result in loss income.
A survey shows that 22 PUJ lines will not be greatly affected, and six lines will be more seriously affected. No jeepney line will be completely displaced, as they would still have to ferry passengers from the outskirts (more than 2 kilometers from the CBD) to the waiting stations of the AGT as it makes its circular route.
Those that will be the stations which are either too near or too far from the pickup points of AGT.
The study showed that 18 of 40 PUJ lines, 1,718 out of 2,463 jeepney units and around 1.87 million passengers of the total 2.658 million passengers per week will be affected.
However, even with this intervention, the estimate of improving the PM10 level will be only to an optimistic 50 µg/m3, still much higher than the WHO standard of 20 µg/m3. In the discussion, Dr. Lorelie Mendoza, Economics professor of the UPB Department of Economics, suggested that the role of tourism can also be studied, based on the study result indicating that air pollution declines during the rainy season and peaks during the Panagbenga celebration and on through the summer months (February to April).
Mendoza also said that the long-term effect of air pollution on children (aged 15 and below) on their productivity as adults can be studied. Dr. Julius Caesar Sicat, executive director of DOST-CAR, said he had formally presented the AGT transport system to Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan in 2013. Its benefits were validated in the light of the health risks presented and in the daily contribution of AGT to reducing air pollution.
Dr. Donnabelle Tubera of the Baguio Health Department said noncommunicable diseases are the major causes of death, and this can be attributed to air pollution.
“Health care can be bought, but health itself cannot,” she emphasized. But Perfecto Itliong Jr., head of the Federation of Jeepney Drivers and Operators of Baguio-Benguet, asserted that the plight of the PUVs threatened by the AGT system must be taken into serious consideration. The estimated number of PUVs in the CBD is about 7,300 units.