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Scrap the Clean Air Act!

By PISTON-Metro Baguio

July 28, 2005

The PISTON Metro Baguio Chapter strongly opposes the renewed apprehension of the violators of the provision of the Clean Air Act. This is just another money-making scheme of the concerned government agencies which targets poor drivers and small PUJ operators by charging them with exorbitant fines for every apprehension.

We should not be blamed for the emissions from our engines. We are doing our part by conditioning our engines because it is our livelihood that is at stake.

The government should instead check the quality of fuel being sold to us by these greedy oil companies. We believe that the low quality of diesel we consume causes the emission of black smoke. The oil cartel has admitted that their products are not well refined, and that they will abide by the provision of clean air act only if the people are willing to shoulder the cost. Meaning they will pass on the refining cost to the end consumers (the poor drivers).

One thing is that the engines of our PUJs are surplus products from industrialized countries like Japan and Korea, and that we are not certain if these could have passed the standards of smoke emission testing before it was allowed to be imported into our country. The government even welcomes the entry of re-conditioned engines which are already over-used and therefore phased out in the country of its origin.

The government should look into these matters before imposing laws and regulations that are only detrimental to poor Filipinos. PISTON believes that in order to clean the air and ensure health and safety of the public, national industrialization should be adopted. With this, we will not depend too much on imported surplus engines from the industrialized countries. The nationalization of the oil industry must also be done. With this, the quality of oil products shall be ensured without passing the cost to the end consumers who are already bearing the burden of sky high prices of oil.

While the government cannot impose the Clean Air Act on the Big Oil Cartel, it looks at the poor drivers and small PUJ operators like captives that cannot do anything but abide with the impositions of the government.

Piston further questions the sincerity of the government in implementing the Clean Air Act. This has just become a source of corruption of enforcers by collecting bribes from those that cannot pass the smoke emission testing.

At this point, we demand that the apprehension on the violators of Clean Air Act be stopped and we call for the scrapping of Clean Air Act. #

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