A GROUP of clean air advocates asked the Ombudsman to investigate Department of Trade and Industry officials for graft for their alleged failure to rid the roads of smoke-belching vehicles.
In a complaint that took the form of a class suit filed on Tuesday, the Coalition of Clean Air Advocates said Trade Secretary Gregorio Domingo and Undersecretary Vic Dimagiba may be held liable for negligence in violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act for failure to implement the Clean Air Act of 1999.
Under the law, the DTI, along with the Departments of Transportation and Communications and the Environment and Natural Resources, is tasked to implement a national vehicle inspection program.
The DTI also accredits the private emission testing centers.
“From and after the passage of The Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 (Rep. Act No. 8749), Secretaries and Undersecretaries have come and gone, but to date, a long fifteen years from thence and now, we continue to see and experience lack of meaningful results to come out of the passage of the said law, simply because of the herein respondents’ neglect, that is not merely administrative non-feasance, but may – as well be a criminal offense, under the Graft and Corrupt Practices Act/s,” the complaint read.
The group was represented by Atty. Leo Olarte, M.D., Herminio Buerano Jr., Efren De Luna, Ramon Ventura and activist priest Fr. Roberto Reyes.
The complainants alleged that the respondents may have had vested interests in their purported failure to strictly implement inspection of motor vehicles for its smoke emission.
They said vehicle owners only pay bribes to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to secure a Certificate of Emission Compliance without undergoing an inspection of the vehicle.
While the LTO faces a separate complaint over the alleged bribe filed by the same complainant before the Ombudsman, it is also likely that the Trade officials benefitted from the bribe, the complaint said.
“The neglect is not a simple matter. Rather, it may be borne or brought about by a strong lobby of vested interests that did not want proper implementation of the law, in order that profitable nefarious activities could be undertaken with impunity, in perpetuity, year in year out,” the complaint said.
“There is absent a ‘National Motor Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Program’ for ‘motor vehicle inspection and maintenance,’ hence, the proliferating non-appearance practices of Private Emission Testing Centers (PETCs) are not checked and continue un-abated, and profiteering abounds within the midst of PETCs, and which is aided and abetted by these inactions of herein respondents,” the complaint added.
The complainants attributed the dirty air in the metropolis to the Trade officials’ purported failure to implement the Clean Air Act.
“It is the people, and the herein complainants included, who pay a heavy price, with their health, while the polluters get away with impunity and continue to pollute the air, day in, day out, scot-free, and with even the premium and bonus of so much profits to their heart’s contents and desires,” the complaint read.
The complainants asked the Ombudsman to charge the officials for violating the antigraft law and to preventively suspend them pending the investigation.