Friday, August 31, 2007 Covington: Belching, basura and a bank By Gary Covington Looking in
HERE'S an admission!
LAND Transportation Office (LTO) chief Eleanor Calderon the last Wednesday confessed that the LTO doesn't have any exhaust emission testing machines (They used to - I remember getting the Blue Beast tested at the old Ma-a truck depot. Beast failed gloriously, laying down a thick black smokescreen across the yard).
Further, that drivers tweak their engine just to pass the test (By weakening the fuel/air mixture. Black smoke is unburnt fuel - less fuel and more air equals less or no smoke. The engine runs lumpy but can be tweaked back to belching normality immediately after passing the test). Or - in other words - that the obligatory emission test is a waste of time and merely another way for the administration to screw revenue out of the population via the taxes emission centers pay. The cost of said taxes of course passed on to the customer.
Still on the road and here's another nail in the environment's coffin - non air-con taxis are to be phased out.
Why another nail ? The next time you're stuck at traffic lights next to a giant, tinted-windowed, air-conditioned, RUV listen to the engine note - its tick-over rate. Every few seconds the engine revs will accelerate even though the vehicle is standing motionless. That's the air-conditioner's thermostat cutting in telling the engine to work harder to drive the air-con to cool the car's inhabitants. Air-conditioned vehicles use more fuel than non air-con; more fuel burnt equals more exhaust emissions equals more pollution. See? Another nail.
And, thinking back, what happened to the electric jeepney and taxi that were in the news some while back? Did they turn up? Give a demonstration? If so, were they any good?
Or - re-introduce the Minica. Remove the engine and fit pedals - discount if the passenger pedals too.
Local news and CENRO have hit on a new way to force the residents of my neck of the woods to put their garbage in the wheely bins provided. They've stopped sending round the ten-wheeler collection trucks. Most of us wheel our black basura baggies to the bins - early; there's only two and they soon fill to overflowing - but the rest? Why, they follow traditional practice and toss their garbage onto the nearest lot of vacant land.
Headline of the week was on Wednesday - "Presence of MILF men in R-11 no cause for alarm." This was Brigadier-General Carlos Holganza speaking, that the MILF was "contained" -contained that is until they feel the need for more arms or ammo or that someone is trespassing on "their" patch and then they become uncontained. Running riot pursued by the army and a gaggle of peace process observer folks whispering stop.
Lastly and let's have a whinge about Philippine banks. I popped into the Claveria branch of the Bank of the Philippine Islands at about 11.30 on Tuesday morning. Lunchtime. Near the end of the month and the bank was heaving - a crocodile of a queue with its snout pressed against the counter and its tail, after a few bends and straights, jammed against a far wall.
I tagged on the end, every eternity or so shuffling forward a few inches and then - blow me down - one of the only two tellers shut shop and sauntered off towards the rear. Lunchtime. Near pay day. One teller.
A couple of hours later, it might have been the same day, I'd reached the single, sole and standalone teller and asked why teller #2 had quit. He'd gone for lunch. BPI, it seems, Claveria branch, does not run to three tellers. Try another bank folks.
