STARTING today the Land Transportation Office will summarily fine smoke belcher violators in a bid to give more teeth to the agency's campaign in fully implementing the Clean Air Act of 1999.

Assistant secretary and LTO chief Anneli Lontoc has issued a memorandum on the removal of the "24-hour contestability period" given to apprehended smoke belchers.

She explained that the LTO has decided to remove the said ruling since it has no legal basis and was only issued because the LTO had no emission testing equipment back then.

When the LTO already had enough equipment, Lontoc said that the ruling was not changed, which in turn resulted to the dismissal of several cases filed against smoke belcher.

"Sa batas kasi 'yung once na pinadaan sa smoke testing machine ang sasakyan at lumabas na positive "prima facie" evidence na agad doon sa violator 'yun," Lontoc said.
Currently, the agency is imposing P1,000 for the first offense; P2,000 for the second offense and P5,000 for the third offense aside from suspension of the license of the driver.