THE Department of Transportation (DOTR)-Cordillera is pushing to modernize vehicles, official said.
DOTR-Cordillera director Jose Eduardo Natividad said there are ways to minimize pollution from emission of vehicles.
"For the part of the Department of Transportation we want to minimize air pollution. We are trying to modernize the vehicles that are running the different routes here and to comply with the standards. We have possibilities where one way is through modernization," Natividad said.
The DOTR is coordinating with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for them to be given opacimeters, machines that will test emissions of vehicles for diesel and gas analyzer.
Natividad said once a vehicles emission goes higher than the standard, the government could confiscate the license of the owner.
DOTR also wants to lift the moratorium on the issuance of franchises paving the way for modernized vehicles like electric and solar powered.
If the moratorium is lifted, Natividad said it will help solve the problem on colorum vehicles.
“When there are more franchise to be given, there is a possibility to have more vehicles. We are just balancing the interest but with the advent of technologies, we have those that with less emission of pollution. In Baguio, there are many people and there would be more demand,” Natividad added.
The Environment Management Bureau under DENR is one of the agencies responsible for measuring air pollution in Baguio City which have reported earlier the air quality in the city is still at the normal level based on their measuring devices.