Smoke belchers persist in Cebu City

LAX TESTING

There are still many smoke belchers polluting Cebu City streets despite the presence of smoke emission testing centers, Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera said in last Tuesday’s City Council session.

The councilor said this is prohibited under City Ordinance No. 2111 which provides for vehicle emission policies and penalties for violations.

He said the Land Transportation Office (LTO) also requires that vehicles must pass emission tests conducted by accredited smoke emissions testing centers before they can be registered.

But Garganera said these testing centers have “provided a layer of graft and corruption” by circumventing laws and ordinances in granting approvals to some vehicles even if these don’t pass standards.

The Cebu City Council called on the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) to strictly enforce City Ordinance No. 2111 and apprehend motorists whose vehicles don’t pass smoke emission standards.

Sought for comment, CCTO operations chief Francisco Ouano said they have been doing random inspections of vehicles to check on their smoke emissions.

“We always do random emission checks every day. But for now, I think for the past two weeks, we had to stop since we needed to use more traffic enforcers for the underpass project along N. Bacalso Ave.,” he told  Cebu Daily News.

CCTO has only one team of five people who conduct random smoke emissions tests daily using a portable apparatus. Ouano said once the traffic situation in the construction site normalizes, the team will continue apprehending violators.

The CCTO imposes a fine of P1,000 on first offense; P3,000 on second offense; and P5,000 on third offense for violators of this city ordinance.

They are also given a chance to recalibrate their smoke emissions and come back to the CCTO for another check on the first offense.