Republic Act No. 8749

The DENR is to provide the latest technology and alternative methods of prevention which can be applied most in the existing industries here in our country. Such industries include chemical plants, smelting and refinery plants, and other plants that usually exhaust gases in the atmosphere during their process. But what is happening nowadays would somehow contradict the former statement, because some industries rather chose to pay the penalties instead of adopting the new techniques suggested by the department. According to Chapter 6 Section 25, a fine of not more than 100,000.00 pesos, every day of violation, will be imposed to the responsible operators for an actual increase of air pollution or devastating the standard air quality of air under this R.A. Maybe because these equipments particularly for filtering the gas before exhaustion are really really expensive and might not take effect for a long span of time or for practicality, they can gain more than enough profit to allocate budget for their violation instead of buying new equipments, business it is.

In this connection, it should be proposed that anyone who violates the provisions under this Act should pay more than 100, 000.00 pesos per day and would still increase every year. In this way, those people who are confident in just continually discharging toxic gases would realize that protecting the environment and the people is the top priority.

There are a lot of sources which contributes in polluting the air and what is also common but not really that given attention to is smoking. It does not only kill the smoker but the higher the probability on killing also the non-smokers who will be inhaling the smoke produced from smoking. We should be alarmed because as reported in 2007, there were 4.9 million people dying per year due to smoking. In cases like this, it is the local government units who will need to exert great effort on discouraging people from smoking. I have observed campaigns and TV commercials regarding the negative effects of smoking both in our health and the environment, it could be a good path to follow in order to reduce pollution by smoking if not to hundred percent abolish it.

To incorporate equilibrium, this Act tends to balance development and environmental protection through reduction of air pollutions present in the atmosphere, providing the nation a clean environment while attaining development.

Whether or not we ourselves are violators of this law, it is our responsibility to interact and cooperate in providing a good habitat and a pleasant community to protect our lives and the secure our future. This Clean Air Act will never reach its purpose if just keep it written. Authorities have been assigned and it would be nothing without our participation.