Sustaining all efforts exerted towards making the Philippines a CFC-free country, the National CFC Phase-out Plan Project Management Unit (NCPP PMU) under the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) intensifies the implementation of the National Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) Phase-out Plan (NCPP) Project, working in partnership with other concerned government agencies.
As one of the 195 state signatories to the Montreal Protocol, the Philippines already banned importation of CFCs since 01 January 2010. The country commits to totally phase out the consumption of CFCs in the servicing sector by 2012, while total ban on the use of CFC in the manufacturing sector was already implemented since January 1999.
Through a Joint Administrative Order (JAO) No. 3 between the DENR and the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) issued in January 2006, CFC-using air conditioning systems of motor vehicles have been regulated. JAO No. 3 Series of 2006, which enforces the regulation on motor vehicles under the Revised Chemical Control Order (CCO) for ODS, is consistent with the NCPP.
As one of the provisions of JAO No. 3, the DOTC’s Land Transportation Office (LTO) has been conducting mandatory inspection of vehicles to determine the volume of vehicles with air conditioning systems.
The mandatory inspection of air conditioning systems prior to registration has been implemented since January 2007 while random roadside inspection, similar to the roadside emission testing of vehicles, has been implemented since June 2006 by the joint EMB-LTO inspection team.
Vehicle models from 1999 up to the present have non-CFC air conditioning systems. Any vehicle from among the said models found to have been converted back to a CFC-12 (R-12 or Freon) system shall not be allowed to register or renew registration with the LTO, unless the air conditioning is changed back to a non-CFC system. Vehicles with HFC-134a air conditioning systems are restricted from converting back to CFC-12 (or Freon).
The restriction discourages the practice of back-conversion, which means changing a non-CFC system with CFC or R-12 to save on the cost of refrigerants. It is also a way to encourage vehicle owners to use environment-friendly refrigerants in their vehicles, such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFC-134A or R-134A). Older car models (1998 and earlier) with CFC-using air conditioning systems will still be allowed to be registered before 2012.
