“It was unfortunate that representatives from our industry were not invited to the committee hearing to answer the accusations and lies hurled against PMVIC operators. The non-stop black propaganda not only undermines our duly accredited processes, it also impedes progress for road safety in the country as well,” said VICOAP Spokesperson Atty. Fudge Tajar.

During the Senate hearing, Vice Mayor Mannix Ortega of San Juan, La Union was invited as a resource speaker in the budget hearing and said that roadworthiness machine testing of PMVICs is debatable.

“With all due respect to the vice mayor, all testing equipment used in PMVICs have undergone regulatory procedures in the Philippines. These are the same machines that are also used in vehicle inspections facilities all over the world; in both developing and developed countries. Malicious presumptions, especially those made in official public venues such as Senate Sub-Committee Budget hearings, are akin to fake news peddling. We are not sure if he is merely trying to protect the interests of PETC owners,” Tajar said.

This is despite earlier reports of vehicles getting damaged during the mandatory vehicle testing at PMVICs. Equipment manufacturers, who supply the PMVICs also effectively passed the blame to the machine operators.

Due to public clamor against PMVICs, the mandatory vehicle testing was ordered suspended by the DOTr. PMVICs will only do emission tests as well as visual inspection, similar to Private Emission Testing Centers or PETCs.

Yet, VICOAP chose to belie the statement of another resource speaker, Ariel Lim, who said that PMVICs are only conducting emission testing similar to PETCs.

“That is a ridiculous claim since inspections at PMVICs are comprised of more than just emissions. The inspections include visual inspection of above and under-carriage, sideslip test for wheel alignment, suspension test, roller brake test, speedometer test, headlight test, exhaust noise level test, and finally, exhaust emission tests. There is absolutely no comparison,” Tajar continued.

Tajar was also surprised that the resource speakers kept harping about PMVICs imposing high fees, when in fact, their rates have been set at P 600 for light vehicles, 500 for motorcycles, and 300 for for-hire vehicles, per inspection (VAT exclusive).

What Tajar failed to point out though was that these revised fees were set after the public clamor against PMVICs. Originally, testing fees were set at around P 1,800 for light vehicles and P 600 for motorcycles.

For its part, The Coalition of Clean Air Advocates of the Philippines (CCAAP), a multi-sectoral organization composed of environmental advocates and transport groups says the formation of the PMVIC system is going against the lawful intent of the Clean Air Act.