Acquisition of air quality monitoring stuff aboveboard–EMB

This refers to the article titled “DENR hit over ‘costly, idled’ air pollution monitors” (Metro, 1/7/17).

The Environmental Management Bureau, which is under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, welcomes the call of advocacy groups—Coalition of Clean Air Advocates of the Philippines (CCAAP) and the United Filipino Consumers and Commuters (UFCC)—for an audit on the purchase by the agency of air quality monitoring equipment.

Several articles have been published in various newspapers questioning the accuracy and cost-effectiveness of the acquired monitoring equipment. We would like to reiterate that the purchase of such equipment was aboveboard and free of corruption, following step by step the procurement and bidding rules.

The procurement of the equipment went through the standard bidding procedures and through competitive public bidding in accordance with Republic Act No. 9184, or the Government Procurement Reform Act.

From 2011 through 2015, the EMB acquired air quality monitoring equipment for its central and regional offices. The purchase included both Open Path Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) and Particulate Matter Stations (PM 10/PM 2.5). The purchase cost was only around P290 million, and not P1 billion as CCAAP and UFCC have claimed.

We would also like to stress that the monitoring equipment procured by the EMB falls under the equivalent methods certified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

The Open Path DOAS is one of the advanced technologies that can be used by the country for ambient monitoring. The technology offers spatial representation of a geographical area, with probable capability of capturing measurements of local sources of emissions.

JACQUELINE A. CAANCAN, in charge, Office of the EMB Director and concurrent assistant director, Environmental Management Bureau