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THE Land Transportation Office (LTO) will investigate all accredited
private emission test centers (PETCs) to find out which are engaged
in illegal activities, particularly those issuing clearances to
vehicles which were not tested at all.
“I have witnessed some anomalies and I promise
to take action against these erring PETCs,” LTO Chief Alberto
Suansing told reporters.
Based on the information received by the LTO,
some testing centers are able to test more than 100 vehicles daily
when they only have two lanes for testing.
Suansing said he finds it “incredible” for a
two- or single-lane emission testing center to accommodate 100
vehicles daily because it takes about 15 minutes to test a vehicle.
One of the emission test centers being monitored
by the LTO is owned by EnviroGuard Technologies Corp., which has a
facility in East Avenue, Quezon City, which manages to test an
average of 100 vehicles a day.
Oliver Villanueva, supervisor of EnviroGuard,
even admitted last month that they were able to test an average of
300 vehicles a day because January is peak season.
The said testing facility is under the one-lane
classification which means it can test only one vehicle at a time.
Incidentally, the LTO’s head office is not far away from
EnviroGuard’s facilities.
Other testing centers being monitored are
Datapro in Bluementritt and AutoGas in East Avenue.
The LTO when it was still headed by Reynaldo
Berroya placed 45 PETCs under investigation after the agency
received evidence that these facilities were involved in illegal
activities.
But the LTO did not suspend a single testing
center.
The illegal activities PETCs allegedly do is ask
for an under-the-table fee for the issuance of a clearance for a
vehicle that was never tested. This is on top of the regular testing
fee charged by the testing centers.
-- Jefferson Antiporda
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