Palace, Cabinet execs told to ride public transport

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Clean air advocates on Monday asked the Supreme Court to order all Cabinet officials and employees of Cabinet departments of government to reduce their fuel consumption by 50 percent and start taking public transportation.

In their petition, they said Executive Order 774 and Administrative Order 254 particularly the implementation of provisions on reduction of fossil fuel consumption is long overdue.

The EO directed the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Transportation and Communications to work together to immediately transform roads using the principle “those who have less in wheels must have more in roads.”

Further, Malacañang and all Cabinet offices were directed to cut down on fossil fuel consumption by at least 50 percent in 730 days (two years).

“Note that this should have been complied already as early as January 2010…They [all the cabinet officials and employees of the Cabinet Departments of Government starting with the Office of the President, Climate Change Commission, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Transportation and Communications, Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Metro Manila Development Authority Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Transportation and Communications, Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Metro Manila Development Authority] must also be compelled to take public transportation for 50 percent of the time,” petitioners said.

By  taking the public transport “then and only then, will they realize the daily purgatory that the ordinary people have to go through because of the lack of a good public transportation, proper sidewalks and bike lanes and of the poisonous air that they breathe.”

Petitioners added that the DPWH should also be required to demarcate and delineate the road right-of-way of all roads and sidewalks in the Philippines and remove all obstructions, if any.

President Benigno Aquino III as head of the Climate Change Commission, Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), Department of Agriculture (DA), Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), DPWH, DILG, DBM, Road Board and unnamed LGUs were also named as respondents in the petition

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