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[SIZE="4"]Cutting down smog a jeepney at a time[/SIZE]

By Chupsie Medina
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:53:00 10/01/2009


PETER SANDOR prefers to be known as an agent of change.

He has rolled up his corporate sleeves to do battle with what seems to be an irresolvable pollution problem that jeepneys, notwithstanding their iconic status as cultural symbols, continue to pose to the 12 million inhabitants of Metro Manila.

One jeepney at a time, Sandor stresses.

This is the battle cry of Formula Juan, an out-of-the-box solution that Sandor has pieced together with the help of World Wide Fund for Nature-Philippines and Ecos Environmental Foundation Inc., plus the creative energies of his staff at Bates 141 Philippines, of which he is CEO.

Six months into the Formula Juan campaign, the scorecard reads 6:55,000. This implies that, theoretically, there are 54,994 other jeepneys on the streets spewing deadly exhaust emissions against six.

But for Team Formula Juan, the tide has already turned. The optimism they express is buoyed by the realization that they now have a winning solution that is both sustainable and workable.

Infamous list

Admittedly, says Naderev Saño, WWF-Philippines’ head for Climate Change and Energy Program, the Clean Air Act that was passed into law in 1999 had failed to eliminate the monstrous mess created by second-hand diesel engines powering Philippine jeepneys.

Manila is still on that infamous list of being one of the more polluted cities in Asia.

It does not help that jeepneys are a source of livelihood for more than 350,000 families, not to mention the unquantifiable value of being a tourism peg by a government bent on attracting foreign visitors to the country.

Vehicles that belch health-threatening smoke and black soot are barely apprehended. Worse, second-hand diesel engines junked in many countries that have more stringent road environmental standards continues to find their way on our roads.

“You can buy an emission test nowadays,” Saño laments.

But with Formula Juan, Sandor believes that the jeepney’s pollution-inducing days are over. The prescription they have come up with is not aggressive or threatening to jeepney drivers, and will even mean increased earnings.

When a colleague introduced Syuichi Tajima, Ecos Foundation secretary general, to Sandor, the original idea of converting the jeepney’s diesel engine to run on the cleaner LPG fuel was ruled out.

“It’s not technically feasible, unlike in gasoline engines,” Tajima says.

Engine replacement

What was technically possible though was to replace the whole worn-out diesel engines with relatively newer LPG engines. Many Asian countries have vehicle engines that are originally designed to run on LPG, and they have been proven to be more energy efficient and kinder to the environment.

Adopting this route though would have meant incurring costs no jeepney driver could afford.

Armed with more than 20 years of experience in the advertising world, Sandor devised a win-win situation that could earn the support of firms, particularly those that nurtured a deep conviction toward helping solve societal, including environmental, problems.

In a sense, Abbott Laboratories was the perfect pilot endorser. The drug firm was a client of Bates and, being on the lookout of new advertising media, found value in the project as an innovative way of making the public more aware of its product while supporting the Formula Juan advocacy.

It took a couple of months for the first jeepneys brandishing LPG engines to roll out into the streets, decked with no less than the bright orange and vermilion colors of Cecon, an Abbott vitamin product.

When the first three jeepneys made their appearance in the Bel Air, Makati area, they became a hit, especially with other jeepney drivers, after initial reports that the reconfigured jeepneys boosted earnings twice over.

Two more jeepneys were deployed in San Juan, while a sixth plied the Ayala-Zapote route.


Straightforward ads

The Cecon murals are straightforward advertising messages, but Sandor is looking at developing the right design mix that will keep the jeepney culture alive while still making clients happy. There is also scope to use the jeepneys as media to convey the Formula Juan movement so that people would choose to support the movement by riding participating public utility vehicles, and even buying the products of supporting companies.

Being a man who believes that something can be done to keep jeepneys on the road without sacrificing people’s health and the environment and forcing jeepney drivers out of a livelihood, Sandor is busy making sales pitches to more companies, even the many business chambers.

Still goal

It’s a stiff goal he has set, a hundred jeepneys converted this year. But even if he thinks he won’t be able to accomplish what he has set out this year, there is still next year, and the year after that.

“The passion to keep the streets clean … will always be there,” he declares.

Later, Sandor and his associates were able to refine the pricing policy to make it more attractive to corporate advertisers as well as media buyers.

With the new participation rates, using jeepneys as an advertising vehicle becomes increasingly competitive when compared to other advertising media, more so especially since Bates 141 is doing the ad design for free.

WWF will treat the cost of advertising as donation, and Ecos, a non-profit organization, will provide the technical expertise.

“If other organizations, companies or advertising agencies want to copy what we’re doing, we would be extremely happy,” says Sandor.

Ten more companies doing what Team Formula Juan is doing will definitely make the task of converting 55,000 jeepneys in Metro Manila easier.

Those interested in joining the race for cleaner air through Formula Juan may get in touch with Pete Sandor. The Bates 141 office is on the 27th floor of the Ayala Life-FGU Center, 6811 Ayala Ave., Makati City. You may also call (632) 8121141.