Several leaders of the House of Representatives led by Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez urged the Department of Transportation to defer and review the opening of more motor vehicle inspection centers, which are supposed to replace emission-testing facilities.
Romualdez, together with Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta, Deputy Majority Leader Juan Miguel Arroyo, Assistant Majority Leader Precious Hipolito Castelo and Tingog party-list Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez, who heads the committee on the welfare of children, made the appeal in House Resolution 1408.
In their resolution, the five lawmakers said the Land Transportation Office had identified 209 additional sites to the original sites of 138 for PMVICs.
It has to be noted that the original sites of 138 have already been approved and 8 out of this initial number has already been given the Authorization Certificate to Operate while 13 sites are still awaiting their ACTO and 6 sites are ready for inspection. These numbers will show that the first batch of 138 centers/sites are still not fully and completely operational.
They said while the LTO had allowed these PMVICs to serve the public, its district offices were still accepting certificates of emission compliance issued by private emission testing centers.
“The presence of PETCs and the continued acceptance of CECs as a requirement for the registration of motor vehicles create unfair competition to the prejudice of PMVICs authorized by the LTO and those that are still under construction and working towards securing their authority to operate,” the five House leaders said in their resolution.
They said the motor vehicle inspection centers took two years to comply with LTO requirements and to go through the vetting and authorization process.
“The addition of more sites will unnecessarily burden the LTO as these will go through the same tedious process that will stretch out the agency’s manpower amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” they said.
They said the DOTr and the LTO should defer the acceptance of more applicants “until all the initially qualified PMVICs are given authority to operate and until further studies are presented supporting the necessity of having additional centers and its impact on investors.”
In the meantime, they said, the LTO should stop accepting emission test certificates from the PETCs and “instead require motor vehicle owners to undergo inspection by the PMVICs.”