By Jonathan L. Mayuga
With lack of an impounding area, the crackdown against smoke-belching motor vehicles may have to wait.
The National Anti-Environmental Crime Task Force (NAECTF), led by Environment Undersecretary Arturo T. Valdez, was supposed to start impounding smoke-belching vehicles last month, but lack of an impounding area large enough to accommodate the expected number of vehicles is derailing the plan.
Mike Aragon, vice president for communications and public relations of the Coalition of Clean Air Advocates of the Philippines (CCAAP), said the NAECTF has yet to find an impounding area to sustain an intensified campaign for cleaner air in Metro Manila.
The CCAAP, a civil-society organization component of the NAECTF and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’s (DENR) lead partner in the campaign for cleaner air, is coordinating with the DENR and other agencies to strictly enforce the law against smoke belching to reduce air pollution, particularly in Metro Manila.
“Air pollution is a major environmental crime, because air pollution kills,” Aragon said.
Air pollution, he added, causes deadly respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and contributes to global warming that leads to climate change.
Aragon stated that the Philippines belongs to the top most vulnerable list of countries in the planet gravely affected by climate change.
AFP nod
Aragon said the NAECTF has yet to get the nod of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to allow the use of a portion of Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal, which has been eyed as a suitable impounding area for smoke-belching vehicles.
“We are conducting follow-ups on our request to the Armed Forces to let the NAECTF use a portion of Camp Capinpin in Tanay. There are a lot of paperworks involved, and we are continuously making follow-ups,” Aragon said, adding they are coordinating with Lt. Col. Ruben Guinobaly, the AFP’s point person to the NAECTF.
According to Aragon, once the AFP has given the go signal for the NAECTF to use a portion of Camp Capinpin, the crackdown is bound to spare no one.
For now, CCAAP, in partnership with the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), is focusing on conducting massive information campaign about the plan.
Aragon is confident that the AFP would soon grant approval of the NAECTF’s request, noting that it is a signatory to a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed by heads of the various government agencies composing the NAECTF.
“The AFP is a signatory to the MOA creating the task force. I’m sure they would soon allow a portion of Tanay to be used for impounding,” he said. To recall, Valdez earlier bared the plan to impound smoke-belching vehicles starting last month as part of the campaign for better air quality in Metro Manila.
10 hectares
Valdez told the BusinessMirror they were looking for a bigger impounding area, measuring at least 10 hectares, where smoke-belching vehicles caught violating the Clean Air Act will be towed.
“We will need at least 10 hectares before we start the crackdown on erring motor-vehicle owners,” Valdez said.
The NAECTF had already started meeting transport groups as early as August, wherein the DENR warned about the consequence of apprehension for smoke belching.
The campaign will cover both private and public-utility vehicles, Valdez said.
The DENR senior undersecretary said the plan is to put up checkpoints in strategic locations to apprehend violators of the smoke-belching law, and tow the vehicles to the impounding area.
He said they decided to look for an impounding area outside Metro Manila so that motorists would be cautious and avoid the inconvenience of having their vehicles towed and impounded.
The NAECTF would also slap violators with stiffer penalties, such as charging owners of vehicles higher fees, from towing to impounding, and would require them to bring their own mechanic to fix their motor vehicles in the impounding area before release.
Top air polluter
According to the CCAAP, poor maintenance of motor vehicles compound the problem of air pollution in Metro Manila.
The DENR said 80 percent of the air pollution in Metro Manila comes from mobile sources (motor vehicles), while only 20 percent comes from industries and other sources.
Last year, to help reduce air pollution from motor vehicles, the DENR and the Department of Energy (DOE) issued a joint resolution prescribing the use of Euro 4 fuel.
While gasoline stations in Metro Manila have complied with the joint order imposing them to sell only Euro 4-standard fuels, it appears that air pollution did not improve at all.
CCAAP also blamed the corrupt practices at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and accredited private emission testing centers, plus the poor implementation of the smoke-belching law, for the poor quality of air Metro Manila residents breath.
Air quality
Aragon maintained that Metro Manila’s air quality remains below international standard.
The average total suspended particulates readings in Metro Manila’s air quality monitoring station show pollution level at varying degrees from 120 to 140 microgram per normal cubic to meter (ug/Ncm). This is way above the international standard of 90 ug/Ncm, or “safe” level, he said.
Recently, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) came up with a department order (DO 2016-017) that will take effect on October 1, which reverts back to the DOTr the power of the LTO to authorize and monitor the motor-vehicle emission-testing centers in the country.
Hopefully, Aragon said this will address the problem at the level of the motor-vehicle registration. The next step, he said, is to start enforcing the antismoke- belching law.
1 comment
I agree all cars that will impounded for whatever violation should be put in a depot near to Metro Manila and Tanay in Rzal will be the perfect site. The one in clark Capas Tarlac is too far from Metro Manila. Tanay is also ideal site for the new administrative city to relocate national government offices..