Car smoke test centers bat for LTO watchdog

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) should support the efforts of a watchdog group, the Coalition of Clean Air Advocates (CCAA), to monitor irregularities in the smoke emission testing process, a private emission testing centers (PETC) operator said yesterday.

“The CCAA can identify PETCs that are involved in irregularities and the DOTC and LTO can close down these PETCs,” said businessman George Bian, who represents several PETCs in Mindanao.

He said the CCAA was set up and given funding by a group of legitimate PETC owners and operators.

Bian said the anomalies that enable smoke-belching vehicles to crowd the country’s roads are basically caused by the connivance of unscrupulous PETC operators and LTO personnel.

To guard against this, he said the LTO should properly monitor the data gathered on all the car smoke emission tests conducted each day.

“They should strengthen their monitoring. But since they lack the manpower capacity to properly monitor, they should accept the help of the CCAA,” Bian said.