20 NOVEMBER 2007

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JULIAN AMADOR, director of the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau, says the main problem with motor vehicles is maintenance. “If the vehicle is properly maintained, there’s a big improvement in [the use of] fuel,” he says. “The problem we have here is that vehicles aren’t properly maintained. Smoke belching happens when a vehicle isn’t maintained well, when [fuel] is not burned completely.”



EMB Director Julian Amador [photo by Isa Lorenzo]
At the very least, emission testing seems to have forced many vehicle owners into regularly taking their vehicles for a tune-up before they renew their registration, says Timbang.

Technician Moreno also says that emission testing has led to fewer smoke belchers along Edsa, although these fiends of fume are still a common sight in the metropolis. He adds that when the test was first introduced, 60 percent of vehicles that underwent it at the MVIS flunked — including those belonging to the LTO. Now, he says, only 10 to 20 percent of the vehicles fail the test. The failing rate is even lower among private vehicles.

But since there is no telling what could happen to a vehicle after its visit to a PETC or MVIS, the LTO conducts periodic impromptu emission testing along major thoroughfares during weekends. The DENR says, though, that the LTO’s program has not been that effective due to the lack of manpower. The environment department also hopes that local governments will step up campaigns to clean the air.

“Our vision is that air quality management in the region would be managed by the local government,” says Amador. As he sees it, local governments would provide and prescribe polices in order to improve the air, and also oversee the granting of permits and licenses, as well as enforcement.

One local government that is taking the lead in that direction is that of Makati City. Its ongoing Project Hangin is monitoring respiratory health-related illnesses with the DOH and the level of air pollution in major thoroughfares with the DENR. Makati will use these data to assess the level of air pollution in the city and improve its clean air campaign.

As it waits for other local governments to follow suit, the DENR says it will strengthen the integrity and credibility of PETCs, beef up its roadside enforcement, and improve liquid fuel in the transport system. An Asian Development Bank report also notes that challenges still remain regarding governance, uniform testing procedures, and results interpretation.

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