LTO taps

ABS-CBN'S Bantay Kalikasan has been deputized by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to help implement the government's anti-smoke belching campaign.

Benjamin Calima, LTO chief, said the participation of Bantay Kalikasan in the campaign was a big boost to government efforts to go after vehicles emitting pollutants.

"Your duty as deputies of LTO tasked with implementing the Clean Air Act is a noble one. It is something you can tell your families with pride," Calima told Bantay volunteers in a ceremony recently.

Bantay Kalikasan is a program of the ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc. to protect the environment.

Volunteers underwent training-seminars with the LTO before they were issued certificates of deputation to the "Bantay Kalikasan-LTO Task Force".

"The completion of this training seminar is but the start of a greater task ahead of us: that of cleaning the habitat and environment we live in. The law says polluters must pay. Thus, we run after them," Calima added.

Smoke belching is penalized by Republic Act 8749 or the Clean Air Act to be fully implemented by June.