Curbing pollution via modern mass transportation

INQUIRER.NET FILE PHOTO

THE third part of a special Philippine Daily Inquirer report written by Jhesset O. Enano and Krixia Subingsubing, posted on Monday, tackled the issue of poor air quality in Metro Manila which commuters have to cope with, and the role a modern mass transportation system plays in curbing pollution.

Here are parts of the report:

In Metro Manila, 88% of all emissions come from motor vehicles, a problem that the 20-year-old Clean Air Act, despite its best intentions, has failed to curb.

Under the 1999 law, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is mandated to reduce emissions from motor vehicles to within acceptable guidelines. But it was only in 2017 when the agency began its aggressive push for its ambitious Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).

The program aims to phase out dilapidated public utility vehicles, or PUVs, including jeepneys over 15 years old, and shift to Euro4-compliant and industry-standard vehicles.

Studies have shown that Euro4 gasoline is 90% cleaner than its Euro2 counterpart, thanks largely to its composition, as well as the way Euro4 engines are designed, said Gerry Bagtasa, head of the Atmospheric Physics Laboratory of the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology (UP IESM).

Martin Delgra III, chairman of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), acknowledged that the agency, along with the DOTr, through the Land Transportation Office (LTO), had for the longest time “fallen short of the requirements” of the Clean Air Act.

But beyond giving PUVs a face-lift, Delgra said the PUVMP is a “radical restructuring” of the public transport system that needs a consolidation of PUV fleets and route rationalization.

Much of the woes in public transport are rooted either in the haphazard way routes are designed, the over- or undersupply of PUVs in certain areas, or the vehicles’ lack of interconnection, making it difficult to commute, Delgra said.

Resolving those problems will enable the government to reform urban spaces and make public transport more efficient, he added.

Sustainable transport

“The PUVMP program is not just a big help but a huge statement in creating sustainable transport,” Delgra said. “We are not just deploying new environment-friendly PUVs, but also trying to make them efficient.”

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), as the lead department in enforcing the Clean Air Act, sees the merit in the shift to Euro4-compliant vehicles.

“As long as we have these secondhand or dilapidated cars on the road, the efforts of the Anti-Smoke Belching Unit and even the Private Emissions Testing Centers will make no sense because the problems are already out there,” said Jundy del Socorro, officer in charge of the Air Quality Management Section under the DENR Environmental Management Bureau.

But the price of modernization is steep. Drivers and operators have said that financing the jeepneys — currently pegged at between P1.6 and P2.1 million — with low government subsidy makes it difficult to afford new units.

Only some 3,000 of the 180,000 jeepneys in the country have modernized a year before the LTFRB’s self-imposed 2020 deadline for transition, Delgra said.

Many jeepney operators and drivers also decry having to shoulder the blame for the pollution, saying that private cars that similarly emit pollutants are much bigger in number.

Socially just

While it has its merits, the modernization program has to be socially just, said Mylene Cayetano, head of the Environmental Pollution Studies Laboratory of the UP IESM.

“For example, if I’m driving a diesel-powered private car, my carbon footprint is much bigger than a diesel-powered jeepney that carries 20 passengers,” Cayetano said. “But in terms of exposure to polluted air, those in the jeepney are again at the losing end because they cannot afford an air-conditioned car.”

In an interview with the Inquirer last year, Dr. Maria Neira, director of public health of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the government should invest in healthy urban planning and promote a cleaner public transport system to discourage the public from using private cars that take up more space on the road.

Strengthening the mass transit system across the country can improve not only air quality and transport efficiency but also boost development and progress, said government experts and those in the academe.

Recent DOTr programs have focused on strengthening the transit systems across the country, with the rehabilitation and overhaul of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 and the extension of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 and 2 to the south (Cavite) and the north (Antipolo), respectively.

The agency is also currently building the MRT 7 and the country’s first subway, which will connect Quezon City to Bulacan province and Pasay City.

WHO climate researcher Arthur Wyns said that while it was easy to blame people for their choices that might lead to more pollution, the lack of alternatives should be seen as the root cause.

“There needs to be infrastructure to facilitate the people’s shift [to eco-friendly transport],” he said. “If there are no safe bicycle lanes, who is going to bike? It’s a structural issue, not just an individual lifestyle problem.”

Emerging cities should also learn from Metro Manila’s current challenges and aim for a more inclusive and sustainable development, experts said. Instead of eyeing only the improvement of PUVs, a massive urban renewal and practical alternatives are needed to curb the over-reliance on private vehicles.

For both national and local governments, this requires political will and putting priority on their constituents’ rights and needs — including clean air.

“[Ensuring we have] clean air is everybody’s job, not just the government’s,” Cayetano said. “[If we don’t address the problem,] we all lose because air pollution has no boundaries. It will affect us all, rich or poor, because we are breathing the same air.”