Friday, August 10, 2007 Editorial: Those emission testing centers
IT'S good that Davao City Councilor Pilar Braga plans to call for an investigation into the increased rates being charged by smoke emission testing centers as well as the accuracy of the test results.
Braga, chair of the committee on energy, transportation and communication, wants to invite officials of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to tell the Davao City Council honestly whether the gadgets used by these shops are fool-proof.
The lady lawmaker has observed that since the implementation of test emission as a prerequisite for renewing car registrations, the number of business firms accredited to conduct the test has risen. Usually this development should give rise to a situation wherein vehicle owners are given a wide choice of testing centers to patronize or which offer faster services, lower charges, and in more convenient locations. But this did not happen, Braga said. Despite the proliferation of competing testing centers, the rates for the tests have increased dramatically, prompting vehicle owners and public conveyances drivers to raise as howl.
"It has been reported also that some testing centers, despite claim of efficiency and being computerized, actually allow the tampering of results in exchange of a higher fee, suggesting that the units used for test emissions can be manipulated and the test results showed as basis for registration, flawed or inaccurate," Braga charged.
This accusation of Braga is serious. Unfortunately it appears to have basis. Indeed, one doesn't have to be a certified environmentalist to conclude that despite the enforcement of obligatory emission testing years ago, the problem of smoke-belching vehicles has not improved a bit. What it is sure is that the emission test system has enriched some favored individuals, namely those authorized to operate the testing centers.
