Airshed board to get data on smoke-belching vehicles

THE Metro Cebu Airshed Governing Board will ask the Land Transportation Office and the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board on the status of smoke-belching vehicles in Metro Cebu.

Vince Cinches, a private sector representative of the airshed board, said the request was made because the board would focus on producing baseline data on air quality for the local government units and the government agencies.

“We need baseline data so we will know where to start and which direction to take,” said Cinches during yesterday’s airshed board meeting, which was the board’s first meeting of the year.

The board gave the agencies until January to submit their reports.

The gathering of baseline data is part of the airshed board’s thrust to strictly monitor the air quality in Metro Cebu to keep a progressive economy.

“For Cebu to soar high, there should be strong emphasis for better environmental quality. Local government units that are most polluted should be identified and the reasons (for the pollution) should be addressed,” said Mario Panganiban, chairman on the committee on environment of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He said that Cebu should be pro-active in sustaining a healthy environment.

Mar Tabuco, chief of the Pollution Control Division of the DENR, said the board failed to meet regularly because of funds from the Central Office.

The board is supposed to meet quarterly to discuss concerns of various stakeholders on Metro Cebu’s air quality.

Tabuco, however, said that the P2-million Air Quality Monitoring Fund would soon be available.

The board’s priorities include having its own office and secretariat. Presently, the secretariat is made up of the EMB personnel who admitted being “loaded with work.”

The board will also look into the possibility of acquiring an ambient air sampling device for each LGU.

The board was formed in 2005 in compliance with the Clean Air Act, which required, among others, the local government units to establish an airshed governing board.

It’s headed by the Environment Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and its members are the 13 LGUs of Metro Cebu, business stakeholders and representatives of the civil society. Reporter Candeze R. Mongaya