THIS MONTH
Earl Manalansan Managing Editor
S T R E E T TA L K
THE START OF 2021 WAS THE BANE CAR OWNERS ust when we thought the New Year would bring upon better luck, bureaucracy reared its ugly head and knocked car owners off our feet. And if that wasn’t enough, it kicked us in the head while we were down. And that was just January.
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If you were quarantining under your bed for the last few weeks, chances are you don’t know the influx of new regulations for the car owners. Nothing like a few new rules to brighten up your day Let’s dissect them one by one, shall we?
SAFEGUARD LAW - The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will slap provisional safeguard duties on imported cars, mainly because the market showed that increase in imports has hurt the domestic auto manufacturing industry. DTI said it will impose a provisional duty in the form of a cash bond of PHP70,000 per imported passenger car unit and PHP110,000 per light commercial vehicle unit. This means increase in SRPs of new cars and pickups. As a precaution to protect the locally assembled units, this actually makes less sense as assemblers are pulling out because it’s more expensive to do business here. But the question here is WHY?
emissions test, they now have their vehicle undergo a full roadworthiness and safety check. What was supposed to be a high-tech procedure was a cornucopia of errors and tech blips that it was deemed as moneymaking scheme. It didn’t help that the proponents and their personnel had different answers to queries, further aggravating this fiasco. Social media has also been unkind to the inspection centers, coming up with an assortment of “disaster stories” that has not been helpful. So far, public sentiment is against it.
CHILD CAR SEAT LAW or Republic Act No. 11229, or the Child Safety in Motor Vehicles Act. – Although this was approved by Congress back in 2019, it took another 2 years to formulate the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR). Apparently, 2 years was not enough because it was vague and riddled with loopholes. The target here again is the typical working class car owner. Adding to the chagrin are questions about equipping PUVs and other public transport that were left unanswered. Admittedly, this is a muchneeded regulation, with other countries
enforcing this for decades already. The main complication here is the prohibitive cost of each seat, (about PHP10-15k each) and needing more than one for most families. As of this writing, inferior and cheap car seats are being offered online, which is dangerous because they are not yet certified safe by DTI.
BLINDSIDED
The middle working class is up at arms with these hastily prepared regulations. They feel that they are unfairly targeted and milked for all their worth. It’s also evident that these were forced fed to the populace without as much as public consultation and research. While the above-mentioned laws are welcome, it’s the execution and purpose that is highly questionable. The main proponents are not that enthusiastic to explain, but are actually indifferent to the questions raised by the populace. It also doesn’t help that all these are added financial burdens and we are still in the middle of pandemic. We cannot see nor feel compassion from the government agencies. Its all about money, it seems. I can only wish that they look out from their cozy offices and go out and feel the people’s sentiments. We are still hurting from the economic woes brought upon by COVID19. We haven’t even started the recovery, and implementing expensive laws, no matter how good it is for the majority, is actually killing us.
PMVIC - Private Motor Vehicle Inspection Center- Somebody pulled a fast one over here. Those vehicles due for registration with plate numbers ending in “1” were surprised that, in lieu of the usual
Have a heart.
❝ The middle working class is up at arms with these hastily prepared regulations. They feel that they are unfairly targeted and milked for all their worth. It’s also evident that these were forced fed to the populace without as much as public consultation and research. ❞ GET IN TOUCH
✉ earlmanalansan@gmail.com 10 AUTOCAR.COM.PH FEBRUARY 2021
