By MAVIC CONDE
Bulatlat.com
ALBAY CITY — Following recent reports of unsafe air quality in Calabarzon and Metro Manila, will the country’s environment bureau finally respond to calls for an update on its air quality standards?
“Urgently updating standards implemented under the Clean Air Act, particularly National Ambient Air Quality Guidelines Values, should be a priority of the DENR,” convenor of Power for People Coalition (P4P) Gerry Arances said in a statement.
The World Health Organization’s safe limits for concentrations of PM2.5 annually and daily is 5µg/m³ and 15µg/m³, respectively, while the DENR’s is 25µg/m³ and 35µg/m³. PM stands for particulate matter, which is one of the byproducts of fuel emissions that can harm human health as well as disrupt the climate and crops. PM2.5, being the smallest, is the most dangerous pollutant because it can enter the lungs and brain via the bloodstream and travel far and wide.
The Center for Research and Energy and Clean Air (CREA) published the most detailed assessment to date of the health and economic impacts of air pollution, which is worsened by the country’s reliance on coal. It revealed that air pollution prematurely killed 66,230 people in the Philippines in 2019, with 64,920 of them being adults and 1,310 being children. The deaths cost the country P2.2 trillion (US$ 42.8 billion), taking a big chunk of the estimated economic loss of PHP 2.32 trillion (US$ 44.8 billion), or 11.9% of GDP in 2019, according to the study.
CREA emphasized that these findings support the growing literature on the undercounted impacts of air pollution, which is why more stringent air quality exposure guidelines are in place.
“We cannot settle for anything less than the most stringent standards already being implemented internationally,” Arances said, adding that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ delay in taking this critical action is “trifling with the very lives of Filipinos.”
This disparity is also highlighted by IQAir, which provides real-time and historical air quality data from around the world using available monitoring tools. At around 9:00 a.m. as of this writing, Pasig has a moderate PM2.5 concentration of 35µg/m³, which is “seven times the WHO annual air quality guideline value.” Other NCR cities, such as Manila and Taguig, show different results but reach the same conclusions.
With the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) confirming that the haze in Metro Manila is more likely caused by local pollution than volcanic smog from Taal, environmental advocates such as the P4P again call on the Philippine government to strictly enforce the moratorium on new coal plants.
The think-tank Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED) found in its 2023 study that outdoor air quality in coal-affected sites in Quezon and Sarangani province exceeded the DENR’s national air quality standards on safe levels of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration. Unsurprisingly, the results are worse when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and World Health Organization (WHO) standards are applied.
In Cebu, residents are complaining against the expansion of Aboitiz-owned Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI) Unit 3 coal plant.
“We’re tired of a situation where even the air we breathe could be dangerous to our health. Even the trees near the coal plant are covered with black ashes,” said Nicasio Blanco, president of Limpiyo ang Hangin Alang sa Tanan (LAHAT) in a statement in Filipino.
“We should have been able to breathe a little freely because of the coal moratorium, but the DOE has allowed Aboitiz to expand the TVI plant, we might suffer for decades,” Blanco added.
Fr. Warren Puno of Quezon for Environment (QUEEN) and Director of the Ministry of Ecology of the Diocese of Lucena added in the statement that deadly air has been their reality in Quezon, which he describes as the country’s ‘coal capital’, depriving vulnerable people, the immunocompromised, and children of clean and breathable air.
“Grave as it is, deteriorating air is but one of the many consequences we have to bear if the DOE [Department of Energy] persists in siding with coal developers, and if the DENR refuses to acknowledge that improving air quality standards is already long-overdue,” Arances reiterated. (RVO) 
