To help more workers amid the pandemic, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has appealed to the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to renew the authority of private emission testing centers (PETCs) nationwide to allow them to operate again.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has appealed to Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade on March 31 after receiving letters from the president of the environmental group ANI Kalikasan and a PETC owner on Jan. 28.
In his letter to Tugade, Bello revealed that the closure of PETCs nationwide affected 550 workers and their families.
“On March 31, a total of 110 PETCs were already closed and non-operational for the same reason an average of five employees per center, or a total of 550 employees nationwide, not to mention their families, were affected by the closure due to the denial to renew authority to operate,” the labor chief wrote citing the information from the PETC owner.
He added that ANI Kalikasan appealed to DOLE and underscored that these testing centers committed no violation.
“In this time of pandemic and hardship, especially for small businesses like the PETCs, this department joins ANI KALIKASAN in appealing for your kind consideration to reconsider their circumstance and allow them to renew and operate to be able to bounce back and recover from losses due to the pandemic,” Bello said.