TODAY, the country will face a transport strike. The industry will be squaring off against the government’s Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).
As early as 2017, the Department of Transportation announced the goal of making the country’s public transportation system efficient and environmentally friendly by 2020.
The program calls for the phasing-out of jeepneys, buses and other Public Utility Vehicles (PUVs) that are at least 15 years old and replacing them with safer, more comfortable and more environmentally-friendly alternatives over the next three years.
Currently, there are 220,000 jeepney units operating throughout the country.
Replacement vehicles are required to have at least a Euro 4-compliant engine or an electric engine to lessen pollution.
Let us see who will blink first. The transport groups from Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City, will join the national transport strike which threatened to paralyze 70 percent of the city’s major routes in the morning and 99 percent by lunch time.
I commute so I will be affected. But I’m not concerned. It’s a choice between protecting the environment and livelihood of the undoubtedly poor drivers. It’s between the devil and the deep blue sea, a green future and a polluted present.
This time, I have to bite the bullet. I’m a critic of the Duterte government on human rights issue and for its constant criticism of the Catholic Church, but I have to side with it on PUVMP.
I’m also an environmentalist, and the transport industry contribute particulate matter singlehandedly responsible for up to 30,000 premature deaths each year. Passenger vehicles are a major pollution contributor, producing significant amounts of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and other pollution.
Last year, health experts urged the government to develop a plan for improving air quality as the country had the third highest number of deaths due to air pollution, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to WHO, of the 7 million deaths related to air pollution, 2.2 million were caused by heart disease or stroke.
Dr. Roger Dazo, of the Philippine Medical Association said, “45.3 deaths per 100,000 Filipinos due to air pollution is 45.3 Filipinos too many. We can’t afford to lose our countrymen to preventable health problems it brings like heart disease and stroke.”
“Air pollution is not just an environmental problem—it is a health menace too,” said Health Care Without Harm Executive Direct Ramón San Pascual.