Private emission test centers score conflict of interest

MANILA, Philippines - A group of private emission testing centers at the Land Transportation Office slammed the conflict of interest brought by the cross ownership of certain PETCs by the four accredited PETC-IT providers for the smoke emission testing process.

Macario Evangelista, technical director of the Association of PETC Owners/Operators for Environmental Protection, expressed concern that the connection and relation of some PETCs and the IT providers was resulting to a lack of level playing field among PETCs. “The IT providers themselves own/operate a PETC. Hence, we hold the position that these PETCS get favorable upload and turnaround time from IT providers,” Evangelista said.

 ‘The existing so-called ‘self-policing’ benefits the PETCs owned/co-owned/operated by the IT providers themselves is subjective,” Evangelista said.

The group also complained about the temporary refusal to upload which has been institutionalized by the PETC-IT providers allegedly to favor their own PETCs at the expense of the smaller emission test centers. 

The TRU system is a way for the PETC-IT providers to limit the volume of transactions of the PETCs not owned by them, Evangelista said. “The IT providers are in fact enriching themselves by imposing reconnection fees of P20,000 per center,” Evangelista lamented.

“The IT providers impose a very steep inter-connectivity fee of P80 per transaction, whereas Stradcom’s fee is only P30,” Evangelista added.

Stradcom, the LTO’s IT provider and maintainer of their systems database, has earlier bared the cross ownership by the four PETC-IT providers, ETC-IT, Cyberlink, Eurolink and RDMS, of some PETCs.

The four PETC-IT providers mainly provide the inter-connectivity that allows PETCS to upload online in “real-time” photographs taken of actual smoke emission tests of vehicles to prove that vehicles granted certificates of compliance actually underwent the tests.

The mandatory smoke emission tests as a requirement to the renewal of registration of a motor vehicle was provided for by RA 8749, otherwise known as the Clean Air Act, to eradicate smoke belching vehicles from the country’s streets and major thoroughfares.