DENR urged to junk $1.3-M air pollution monitoring project

By ARTEMIO DUMLAO
The Philippine Star

BAGUIO CITY – Environment Secretary Lito Atienza was urged Friday to abandon a $1.3-million air pollution monitoring project proposed by his predecessor, now Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes.

Clemente Bautista Jr., environmental group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment national coordinator, said the Ambient Air Pollution Monitoring Project of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Guam-based Emissions Technology Inc. (ETI) has failed to produce credible data on Metro Manila’s state of air pollution.

“Hence, it should be terminated,” he said.

Bautista said the level of air pollution in Metro Manila is reportedly hitting record-highs and yielding silent but deadly effects on the people’s health and the environment.

“What’s atrociously unfortunate about the Ambient Air Monitoring Project is that the defective data it produced will not help in creating policies that can mitigate or reduce current levels of pollution in Metro Manila,” he said.

Bautista warned that at least five thousand Metro Manilans are dying each year from the effects of such unmitigated air pollution.

Thousands more are getting sick with respiratory diseases exacerbated by exposure to various pollutants in the air, he added.

Bautista said they want to rebut Atienza’s claim that the Letter of Undertaking submitted by ETI president Robert Wilson to Reyes on July 16, 2007 only means that the DENR basically showed the “intention to proceed with the contract.”

“But on the contrary, the LoU expressly states that the DENR-EMB shall pay ETI the full amount of $1,314,776.49 within five days after ETI posts a performance bond of only $44,000,” he said.

Had the project not been exposed to the public earlier, the DENR might have handed ETI the full payment for their air pollution monitoring stations around Metro Manila, Bautista said.

Ten air monitoring stations were set up throughout Metro Manila to measure ambient air (or air outside and surrounding an air pollution source location) and pollutants like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, ozone, particulate matter and total suspended solids.