Dirty Government - Dirty Air

The Private Emission Test Centers Owners’ Association (PETCOA) aptly described the prevailing situation today in its position paper submitted to the Office of Congressman Jacinto Paras, Chair of the Committee on Transportation and Communication and that is “ It is a ruinous or cut throat competition where everyone tries to cut each other’s throat and suck their own blood just to survive in a supposedly fledgling business or industry “.

Government is partly to blame for this kind of environment which had led to the degradation of the integrity of the test. The Department of Trade and Industry had been mouthing “ free trade and competition” as a rationale for opening the floodgates that allowed each and everyone running to get a piece of the business . DTI had failed to realize that the emission business is not like a “sari-sari store “ or the usual “retail /service business” where “more “ is better for the consumers – you get better price and better service so to speak. DTI overlooked the fact that unlike any retail or service business where the market is finite and the need for a product or service may constantly arise from time to time ; the PETC business have a fixed number of clients in given area and will only avail of the service once a year. So therefore , if an area have only 3,000 vehicles in a year – one can forecast that this will be the only client base . If there will be 3-4 PETC’s in that given area – one will have to fight tooth and nail to be able to test the number of vehicles which will make the operations profitable.

Inspite of the fact that DTI issued a memorandum granting “moratorium” in areas where they believed that there is already a saturation of PETC’s. Unfortunately, as usual – the government’s intervention was already too late.

PETCOA’ s position paper further stated that “Prudence could had been resorted to by the concerned government agencies namely- DTI and LTO regarding the processing and approval of PETC applications thereby invoking a cautious planning and corresponding regulation of an industry that is fragile and subject to possible manipulation by business themselves or by a few inept and corrupt government officials”.

There was also the tremendous pressure coming from the different powerful personalities in the government bureaucracy for the granting of PETC accreditation and permits to operate to their own relatives and friends.

Today, there are many PETC’s operating which are owned by these powerful people in the bureaucracy. This is not really surprising , is it ?

The apparent deregulatory stance of government opened the floodgates to the proliferation of more than 500 PETCs’ nationwide and is now creating havoc to the desired order and fair competition in a public service oriented economic activity. So there are reports of various trade malpractices such as non appearance of vehicles ( vehicles don’t have to physically undergo the emission test process ; but are given certificate of emission compliance in exchange for bribe money ); counterfeiting and faking of forms and fixing or tampering of emission process.

Until today, there is still a significant number of LTO Offices in Mindanao that issues the registration of vehicles without the certificate of emission testing. When asked why ; they would candidly respond that they “have a quota to meet “. I did not quite understand this before until I read in one of the newspaper about an award that LTO ASEC Lontoc gave to LTO offices who met their revenue quotas. I hope that ASEC Lontoc will also look into other conditions that led to the attainment of the quota – that good governance must also be present ,

The issue on rationalization and putting to order the operations of the PETCs’ cannot be over emphasized . It must always be a shared responsibility between the concerned agency and the stakeholders.

The officers and members of the PETCOA , as an organized group, continues on policing its own ranks and will continue to pursue such functions over its members. Mr. Bernard Chang, the Chair of the association, has always been in the forefront of this “clean air advocacy “ and has been actively meeting government partners in this endeavor. But sometimes, I could not help but notice the feeling of great despair, disappointment and sometimes even anger because of the lack of response or interest of government to “ clean up the system”. I could understand his frustration because I had seen this in many members of the privates sector who have just simply given up hope of working with the bureaucracy.
The quality of air that we have in our streets had not significantly improved and our health problems due to deteriorating air quality had worsen. We call on government to be “kinder” to all of us and ultimately give us the “ clean air “ that we all are hoping for – perhaps this is the only luxury in life that we can get for free today .