An environmental group yesterday appealed to Garbriela party-list representative Emmi de Jesus to be more circumspect and to understand deeper where President Rodrigo Duterte is coming from when he made his recent remarks on the jeepney modernization program that the government and even environmental groups are pushing for.
Clean Air Philippines Movement Inc. president Manuel Galvez said that as president of all Filipinos, Duterte is duty-bound to protect the rights of everybody most especially the poor.
Galvez said studies made by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources clearly points out that more than 80 percent of deadly air pollution in Metro Manila and in urban centers nationwide comes from unabated toxic emissions of the tailpipes of motor vehicles (smoke belchers like most of public utility vehicles nationwide).
“These dangerous emissions causes fatal respiratory and cardiovascular diseases [asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, cancer, heart attack, stroke and even sudden death],” he said.
Other credible studies also shows that majority of road accidents/deaths involving public utility vehicles in the country are due to the very poor conditions of these aging fleet of commuter vehicles which is worsened by its non-maintenance or the lack of a regular mandatory maintenance.
When all of these deadly diseases and fatal road accidents/deaths happens, it is definitely the poor or poverty stricken sector of our society that suffers most, the group said.
“The privilege that the law gives to motor vehicle ownership comes with the prime responsibility that the owners of these vehicles must make sure that these same motor vehicles do not endanger or contribute to a clear and present danger against the lives and limbs of every Filipino.”
Meanwhile, Galvez, together with the Philippine Associations of Free Labor Unions (PAFLU) led by its national president Terry Tuazon jointly filed legal cases against several industrial factories located at the National Capital Region (NCR), Region 3 and Region 11 for various violations of the Clean Air Act of 1999, occupational safety and health hazard law including pertinent labor laws to rescue poverty stricken workers and to protect the life and limb of poor factory workers nationwide against the real threats of the existing negative working conditions and the dangerous environment inside and outside these factories nationwide that is inimical to the greater interest of the poor who works mostly in these various sites with current fatal working conditions.
Named respondents in the joint complaints were the Metrodragon Steel Corporation in Caloocan City, Real Steel Corporation, Wan Chiong Steel Corporation, Melters Steel Corporation in Pampanga, and Davao Mighty Steel Corporation in Davao City.
Galvez had opposed the Commission on Appointment (CA) nominations of former DENR secretary Gina Lopez and current DENR secretary Roy Cimatu and also filed ombudsman cases against both of them due to environmental issues.
