The Climate Change Commission (CCC) threw its support to the ongoing "Tanggal Bulok, Tanggal Usok" (TBTU) campaign of the Inter-Agency Council for Traffic (i-ACT).

In a statement, CCC Vice Chair and Secretary Emmanuel De Guzman said, "any further delay or slowing down in our country's efforts to minimize and adapt to the impacts of climate change poses lethal danger to the lives of present and future generations."

According to de Guzman, climate and people-friendly public utility transport is long overdue. “Climate change is caused by the unabated increase of carbon in the atmosphere. Next to electricity and heat production, the country's transport sector drives the increase of the energy sector’s greenhouse gas emissions, which increased by 43 MtCO2e from 1990 to 2012,” he added.

"We laud the efforts of i-ACT as it is consistent with the 1.5°C warming limit goal of the Paris Agreement. We cannot ignore the global clamor for collective climate action,” De Guzman pointed out.

De Guzman also recognizes the implications of black carbon to human health. “Our problem with black carbon does not only affect our climate. Inhalation of this substance coming from dilapidated and smoke belching jeepneys and buses is mostly associated with health problems including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and even birth defects, so it is high time for us to make a move and address this issue.” 

The i-ACT, for its part, welcomed CCC's support saying, "CCC's favorable response reinforces the rationale and necessity of the TBTU campaign that aims to ensure that public utility vehicles (PUVs) are constantly road worthy and safe for public use."

I-ACT communications head Elmer Argaño, a member of the country's delegation to the 21st Conference of Parties last 2015, said, "We cannot let sectoral interest rule over national welfare that, at the same time, takes for granted our dying Mother Earth."

Department of Transportation (DoTR) Undersecretary for Road Transport and Infrastructure, Thomas Orbos, who heads the i-ACT said, "We are happy with the widening and deepening support to our TBTU campaign, as manifested by CCC's recent statement of support." 

"Our campaign is not a fight against our fellow public utility drivers and operators. Rather, it is a fight against the perils and harm those road unworthy and unsafe public utility vehicles bring to people, to the community and our planet," Orbos emphasized.

Last 2017, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change—the first-ever legally-binding global agreement on climate change signed by 194 countries.