Are Makati's Smoke-Belching Tests Legal?

[niky]

Okay, here's the story:

My officemate was doing an errand, and was using a borrowed AUV to do so... and they were accosted for smoke belching. Being polite, they stopped. They were informed that this was a screening and that they were required to take the test. Take note at at this point, the vehicle was not visibly belching black smoke. It was stopped at random.

My officemate called me for advice, I asked her who it was... it was the Makati ASBU, she said. I said that, in my opinion, the Makati City government didn't have the authority or mandate to do emissions testing, and I asked why they were stopped, because I'd borrowed the vehicle myself before her, and I was sure it wouldn't smoke in normal use. In a few minutes, she called back informing me that the testing was over, and that the Crosswind had failed.

I was flabbergasted... I know the Crosswind is a "smoky" vehicle, but the vehicle had recently been reconditioned, oil change, coolant change, flush, injector cleaning, the works! I couldn't comprehend how it could fail a simple opacity test... and worse, fail so badly.

Here's the fun part:

I talked to the driver when they got back. Apparently, the test was done on the side of the road with a portable machine... and from the sound of the test, the Crosswind really did fail. It did belch smoke during the test.

But: They apparently whacked the hell out of the Crosswind for the test. Redlined it multiple times while standing still, until it started smoking. Obviously, given that, it would fail. If I'd have been there, I would have yanked the guy doing the test out of the driver's seat and shook him senseless... asking him if he was out of his frigging mind... were they going to pay for the engine if they broke it?

And when I reviewed the LTO guidelines, I found even more blood-pressure raising stuff:

From what I remember, opacity is tested at 2500 rpms... so I checked an old emissions testing report frm the LTO... according to the report, the 3.5 limit stated on the Makati report is accurate, BUT, it's 3.5 at idle. not at 2500 rpm, and NOWHERE CLOSE to redline. As any motorist worth his salt can tell you, if you redline an engine, it starts dumping excess fuel into the chamber to keep itself from overheating and eventually exploding. This will cause it to belch black smoke if stressed for too long, and this is exactly what this test shows.

So... the testing done by the Makati enforcers was spurious and incorrect, right?

Even better... the emissions report handed to me has no rpm readout and is not signed by the tester. Thus, there is no officiality to the reading, and the reading cannot prove that testing was done under the proper guidelines given in the law. Thus, it is completely invalid.



So... here's my choices... do I argue out of the ticket on a technicality? Do I take these guys to court? Or do I take my complaints to the newspapers and put this out in public? Or all three? Of course, I could always pay the fine and avoid trouble... but then, I don't care about trouble... I've been having a bad week, and I feel like fighting with somebody. I don't even care if they know who I am. I'm not one to hide behind anonymity... though, for the sake of the owner of the vehicle, I'm not revealing whose car it is.

So here it is... I'm taking my complaint to the public, first. And if any lawyer can tell me that this ticket is completely legal, with legal basis, I'll cough up the money. Otherwise, I'd like to know what kind of authority the Makati traffic boys have. Illegal parking? Fine. No U-Turn? Fine. Color-coding window? Well, it's their city... so fine. But inventing their own emissions test to make money off of hapless motorists? Bull. Complete and utter manure.

On to you, Makati City Hall.