HOW those LTO (Land Transportation Office) guys love to project authority on the road. Surely they have it, and the number of vehicles they flag down to the roadside for non-fastened seatbelt to non-wearing of the standard blue shirt (for PUJ drivers) and similar violations every now and then proves that. How great the feeling of being able to stop vehicles in motion and order them to the side must be to these agents of the law!

But how many, just how many, of these State Cop-acting LTO teams ever, and I mean, ever, even just randomly check whether any of these vehicles are still using the now banned R12 aircon freon on their vehicles? And there are fairly easy spot checks for this which LTO agents must know.

I know that kind of inspection is supposed to be done on registration per a December 27,2005 memo from the LTo to all its field offices. If you still don’t know, Sec 11e of the Revised CCO bans the use of chloroflurocarbons in MACs starting 2006 in motor vehicles manufactured and/or initially registered from 1999 onwards and explicitly prohibits their registration.

That should keep those CFC-emitting cars off the road, shouldn’t it? Think again, bud! For why, in Leandro Mendoza’s name, are those small car aircon shops by the road still obviously using R12 freon on their customers’cars? And the more interesting question — why are these old model, obviously beaten cars sporting updated registration stickers?  Get the point? Some LTO registration inspector must have been sleep-walking when he did the once-over on the vehicles. 

Bad, real bad, for the environment. Some guys must have not heard of the revised Chemical Control Order for Ozone Depleting Substances issued by the Departmnent of Environment and Natural Resources.

Come to think of it — and let me see some raised hands now– how many of you guys have heard of the DENR?