BAGUIO CITY – The city government started the implementation of carless Tuesdays in City Hall as part of the overall efforts of the city to significantly reduce the pollutants in the city’s air thus eventually improving air quality right at the central business district area.
Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong announced the effectivity of carless Tuesdays within the City Hall premises last January 21, 2020 and urged city officials and employees to cooperate with the policy.
He pointed out the need for concerned agencies and the city government to adopt the appropriate measures to address the pressing concern of improving the city’s air quality right at the central business district area where air quality has been recorded to be good to fair.
He said he will take the public transport in going to office and city officials and employees must cooperate with the implementation of the said policy which will be enforced until revised or amended.
Previously, the city government implemented carless Mondays in City Hall but most of the city officials, especially the city legislators, complained on the reported inconveniences they have encountered when the policy was strictly enforced by the previous administration.
Under the carless Tuesdays, no motor vehicles will be allowed to park within the premises of City Hall and city officials and employees reporting for regular work will have to use the public transport or leave their private vehicles outside the premises of City Hall.
One of the present administration’s 15-point collective agenda is for the revitalization of the environment through the aggressive implementation of programs and projects geared towards improving air quality, water quality and solid waste management.
Based on the data obtained from the Cordillera office of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB-CAR), air quality in the city has been good to fair over the past several years being at its worst in the central business district area during rush hours, contrary to what has been projected as the bad state of the city’s air quality.
The city’s air quality is good within the Camp John Hay (CJH) and Gibraltar areas where ambient air quality monitoring stations had been installed compared to the good to fair status of the air in the central business district during peak hours.
The city’s good air quality and cool weather condition are Baguio’s natural pull for city and foreign tourists to frequent the city as one of the must-see places, being one of the premier tourist destinations in the country over the past several decades.
The city government continues to embark on the implementation of numerous programs and projects to contributing in overall efforts to improve the state of the city’s environment which had been reportedly compromised because of the serious negative effects of rapid urbanization as people from outside the city continue to flock to the urban center to look for livelihood and employment opportunities.
By Dexter A. See
