Clean Air Act affects all of Metropolitan Manila

There is a saying that the best things in life are free. That is no longer true in our age. The most precious thing we all have and have all taken for granted is the air we breathe. Now, the very air we breathe is a serious health hazard. This is specially so in Metro Manila which is one of the most polluted cities in the world. Eighty percent of the pollution comes from motorized vehicles. The biggest polluters are the 120,000 tricycles, 55,000 passenger jeepneys and 15,000 public utility buses that provide the whole metropolis with the transportation needed by its daily commuters.

It is one thing to pass laws to ensure clean air for the metropolis. The real problem is their implementation. The Department of Transportation and Communication recently tried to phase out tricycles that operated on two-stroke engines. If implemented immediately, it would cause two critical problems. One hundred and twenty thousand tricycle drivers would automatically be unemployed and there is no transportation at present available that would take their place. In short, you can’t just ban existing tricycles from the streets. You must provide the drivers with the means to upgrade their tricycles and the commuting public must have another means of transportation other than the existing tricycles powered by two-stroke engines.

Metropolitan Manila’s air must be cleansed. The present foul air is a threat to the health of every individual who works, resides or commutes to the metropolis. And so now we have a month-long moratorium on the phasing out of pollution-causing tricycles. The drivers should not be seen as villains. They are just trying to earn an honest living. What is needed is a government aid program to help them upgrade their motorcycles. Their old motorcycles can be used in areas where air pollution is not a problem. The cost of upgrading their motorcycles is part of the price paid for cleaning up the air that we all breathe.

Sad to say, New Year’s Day is Metro Manila at its most polluted. Our means of celebrating occasions should be in consonance with the times. Firecrackers became the vogue of celebrating our New Year because the explosion was supposed to drive evil spirits away. Today we know that all they do is cause pollution and serve only to kill and maim people at the very height of the New Year celebration.

The Clean Air Act should have a program to control air pollution during our traditional New Year celebration.

What could be more important than the air we breathe?