Clean Air advocates push green vehicles vs air pollution

MANILA, Philippines – Clean air advocates led by Cabinet officials, lawmakers, and leaders of non-government organizations yesterday teamed up to push for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives aimed at promoting the use of green vehicles to help arrest the alarming state of outdoor air pollution in Metro Manila and the rest of the country.

In a manifesto signed during the first-ever Green Transport Forum held in Quezon City, clean air advocates led by Secretary Ramon Paje of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR); Southern Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado, chairperson of the House transportation committee; Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) general manager Cora Jimenez; and Rene Pineda Jr., national president of the Partnership for Clean Air, stressed that PPPs are “the most effective means of ensuring active involvement of the citizenry in fighting pollution.”

The Aquino administration is promoting PPP initiatives to help bankroll big-ticket government projects without imposing additional burdens on taxpayers.

In their manifesto, the convenors of the Green Transport Forum expressed grave concern over “the alarming and unhealthy levels of pollution caused by transport vehicles plying EDSA and the main roadways of Metro Manila and other highly urbanized cities of the country.”

As a first step to address this serious threat to public health, they called on the DENR to declare Metro Manila, and other mega cities in the country if warranted, as a “non attainment area where specific pollutants have already exceeded ambient standards” as mandated by the Clean Air Act.