PETCs back new LTO chief

MANILA, Philippines – Various groups of private emission testing centers said it was throwing its all-out support to newly-installed Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Virginia Torres in her bid to put a stop to the persistent so-called “non-appearance” car emission testing that has allowed smoke belching vehicles from littering the country’s streets and highways.

The Private Emission Test Center Operators Association (PETCOA), headed by Antonio “Tony” Halili, the Coalition of Clean Air Advocates (CCAA), headed by Herminio Buerano, the four accredited PETC information technology providers, and the LTO formalized their partnership to fight non-appearance cases in a memorandum of understanding yesterday at the LTO central office along East Avenue in Quezon City.

Halili said that their organization of PETC operators are ready to extend all their assistance and cooperate with the administration of Torres to identify erring PETCs that continue with the practice.

Halili said that PETCOA, CCAA and the PETC-IT providers had also signed a similar covenant with former LTO chief Albert Suansing, in recognition of the need to stop the practice, which he said tend to discredit the whole smoke emission testing process.

“Legitimate private emission testing centers also want to clean up the whole process because the activities of these few unscrupulous centers blacken the whole industry,” Halili said. Torres, for her part, expressed her appreciation for the groups’ expression of support and full cooperation.

Torres said that the help of the PETCs to the LTO would greatly boost their efforts to raise the integrity of car emission testing.

Smoke emission tests was made mandatory by the Clean Air Act for all motor vehicles seeking the renewal of their registration with the LTO. The LTO issues certificates of compliance to all motor vehicles that underwent and pass emission tests.