Want clean air? Get rid of the 2-stroke engine!

November has been declared the Clean Air Month by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) so I couldn’t help but notice the manifesto published in The STAR last Sunday by Angelina P. Galang, Executive Director of the Environmental Education Network of the Philippines (EENP) who said that they were "outraged" by the actions of our public officials who do not seem to take seriously the horrible air quality in Metro Manila. This was in reaction of DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza’s signing a memorandum suspending the accelerated program for vehicles emissions testing before All Saint’s Day and the Senate’s vote to defer the implementation of gasoline that would reduce its toxic contents.

Who doesn’t want Clean Air huh? The problem with NGO’s like the EENP, they don’t realize that cleaning the gasoline at great cost to consumers is not the solution to reduce our pollution levels… rather the bigger problem is that government should first rid our urban and provincial centers of the noisy, pollutive two-stroke engine that powers all the tricycles in this country. Like it or not, using expensive, but clean fuel in a two-stroke would still pollute the air.

Meanwhile, we’d like to suggest to those who can no longer stand the poor air quality of Metro Manila to get out of there and move their headquarters to some of these frequencies to PAL’s competitors (not just CPA). I’m sure that if they did this, it would trigger a price war for this route, which would surely benefit the Japanese tourists and our moribund tourism industry! Let’s hope that we’ll see more Cebu-Japan flights in the very near future. And now for the million-peso question… would putting up more flights to Japan convince the Japanese tourist to come and visit our beautiful country?

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Somehow, we struck the passionate chord when we wrote about the proposal of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) to decongest Metro Manila and because so many people believe that this is one way to promote great big chances in this beleaguered nation of ours… thus I will continue printing the numerous letters about this issue in the columns to come. Here’s another one.

"Dear Mr. Avila,

You’re right! Not only in Metro Manila the financial, commercial, and political capital of the country. It’s also the military and police hubs of the land! For obvious reason that this is where the headquarters of the AFP and PNP are located. Not to mention other camps. And ironically, it is also the agriculture center when in fact it is not an agricultural area. The central offices of Departments of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform are there in the urban jungle, situated along busy roads of National Capital Region.

If Malacañang is serious in its "decongestion" program, they must not stop with the transfer of Philippine Marines to Zamboanga, they should also transfer Bohol or Samar where the ambient air quality is fresh, breathable and healthy.

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We got some good news from Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) Vice-Chair Adelberto Yap that the CAB secured nine new frequencies and one landing point from Tokyo, Japan that should give our local airlines like Philippine Airlines, Air Philippines or Cebu Pacific Air (CPA) a boost and chance to increase its flight frequencies to the lucrative Japanese tourism market… especially that one of these frequencies maybe used for the Cebu-Japan route.

However, the bad news is, all these nine frequencies have been assigned to PAL understandably because they’re the only ones flying the RP-Japan routes. So the big question is; can PAL use all these frequencies? Anyone who has flown with PAL lately must have been gravely inconvenienced by many delays due to a serious lack of aircraft, which has affected not only domestic flights, but its international schedules as well. Clearly, PAL doesn’t have additional aircraft to satisfy these newly assigned frequencies.

Furthermore, we all know that PAL long ago has been charging very high fares on their present Japan-Cebu route and I’m certain that they’re going to do the same with these new frequencies. Thus, I wasn’t a bit surprised to learn that Cebu Pacific Air wants a piece of this pie and will fight PAL to get it.

What the CAB ought to do is demand from PAL a timetable to use these frequencies and if they can’t meet this demand, then they should give these two HQs. In the process they will not only declog the metropolis, they will also earn substantially. Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame is nest in the heart of the city, along the busiest highway of the country. No doubt these will fetch a high price if sold in the open bidding. Fort Bonifacio was sold for more than P30 billion.

No doubt these camps will get a much higher price. And its sale, no doubt, will greatly reduce our huge budget deficit. So where will our AFP HQ be transferred? Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija is the best choice. It’s the biggest camp in the land. It has a big land reserve. Why not utilize them before we lose them to squatters and illegal loggers. PNP? They can go to Laguna where the academy, PNPA, and its Special Force are presently situated. If you pass by this area you would notice a large barren area waiting to be developed. Well, its HQ relocation would definitely give it a big boost.

DILG can also transfer there instead of spending millions of pesos renting a building. Also, let’s not forget Villamor Airbase. This can be moved to Pampanga where the Air Force City is. Or Palawan. Remember, pouching and smuggling is prevalent in that area. Its presence may provide a deterrence. And since our Marines are already in Mindanao, why not establish there the Navy HQ? DA should be uprooted to Laguna near IRRI or in Nueva Ecija near PhilRice. And perhaps in Panay Island or Northern Mindanao. DAR, on the other hand, be assigned where there are big landholdings waiting to be distributed such as Tarlac, Negros or Quezon.

Our archipelago has 300,000 sq. km area. It is a total waste of space if we place all in a 636 sq. km. capital or 20 percent of one percent of the country!

Jun Valenzuela, Concepcion Pequena, Naga City."

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected] Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8 p.m.