Probe ‘anomalous’ purchases of air monitors, DENR asked

Consumers, commuters and environmental advocates on Thursday appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to immediately act on what they alleged as anomalous billion-peso purchases of air quality monitors that measure air pollution nationwide by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

“Air pollution poses a clear and present danger to public health and even threatens the lives of our countrymen. The particulate matters emitted from firecrackers, motor vehicles and industrial sources not only hit gravely our respiratory system but also go to our cardiovascular system causing hypertension, heart attack, strokes and even sudden death,” lawyer-doctor and chairman Leo Olarte of the Coalition of Clean Air Advocates of the Philippines (CCAAP), said in a statement.