City seeks sanctionsagainst erring car smoke testing centers

By Ramon Dacawi

BAGUIO CITY -- Admitting its hands are tied from checking on erring private vehicle smoke testing centers, the city may have no choice but to impose additional requirements for the issuance and renewal of their business permits.

City officials decided last Monday to study how and what requirements can be tied to the licenses of these testing centers which are under the regulatory jurisdiction of the Department of Trade, Land Transportation Office, Environmental Management Bureau and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

In his regular meeting with city department heads, mayor Mauricio Domogan said “we keep on challenging these national agencies to impose sanctions but they claim that issues raised against erring testing centers have to be resolved in (their central offices in) Manila”.

He was told that these issues were not yet resolved, allowing the continuous operation of testing centers with defective or substandard gadgets measuring the rate of pollution from exhaust of diesel-, gasoline- and liquefied petroleum gas-fed vehicles.

Roadside teams of the city randomly checking on smoke-belchers discovered last year that some vehicles found failing the test were covered by certifications from private testing centers that they passed emission standards.

The findings gave rise to suspicions that parts of some engines or that the testing itself were being manipulated to obtain a “passing” rate for vehicles. The discrepancies in measurements also triggered complaints from car owners who pay for the smoke-belching tests.

The standards set for spark ignition or gasoline-fed engines range from 0.5 percent (by volume, at idle) for carbon monoxide and 250 to 800 parts per million for hydrocarbon (as hexane), as per the city ordinance which is based on national standards.

For compression ignition or diesel engines, the standards are from 2.0 to 4.5 light absorption coefficient m-1, k, using free acceleration test.

Engineer Angelina Victoria Ferrer of the city environment and parks management office said last year that LPG-fueled engines are covered by the standards for gasoline-fed vehicles.

The roadside random testing teams work in coordination with the LTO, TESDA, EMB and other government and non-government organizations. Colleeen Lacsamana, head of the city’s environment and parks management office spearheading the campaign, has assured the accuracy of the city’s exhaust emission gadgets.

The irony is that all vehicles due for new or annual renewal of registration, including those of the city and other government agencies, will have to be certified as within the smoke emission standards, not by the city but by the private testing centers.