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| IRKED that Baguio was “mistagged” as the most polluted in the country in May, Mayor Mauricio Domogan allowed a Baguio-based inventor and businessman to test a “water reactor” on one of the city government’s vehicles. Vincent Cabreza/Inquirer North Luzon |
BAGUIO
CITY—Angry that the summer capital’s air quality had been mislabeled as the
poorest among cities in the country, officials of Baguio City are gambling on
untested technology that supposedly breaks down water into fuel.
On Monday,
Mayor Mauricio Domogan, the city council and the police watched businessman
Mario de Quinqua operate a government vehicle which he configured to run using
70 percent gasoline, and 30 percent water that is broken down into combustible
hydrogen and oxygen gas by a device that he invented.
The system
helps a vehicle burn all of its fuel, so it does not expel carbon monoxide,
“which would improve the city’s air quality,” De Quinqua told the officials.
“De
Quinqua” is a pseudonym which the inventor, a garments manufacturer, uses to
protect himself from “big economic interests.”
He asked
the Inquirer to conceal his real surname.
A month
since reports named Baguio as the most polluted city, citing the World Health
Organization’s 2014 Global Air Quality Report, Domogan said the undeserved tag
continues to haunt the city.
He said
reporters had assumed that a high level of air pollution detected on lower
Session Road represented air quality in the entire city.
Bonifacio
Magtibay, WHO country director in the Philippines, had disowned TV, radio and
newspaper reports in a May 13 letter, saying they did not conclude that Baguio
was the most polluted city in the Philippines.
Domogan
said he wants to accelerate programs that would clean Baguio air and its
reputation.
Addressing
Senior Supt. Rolando Miranda, Baguio police director, Domogan said he wants to
test the technology on a police vehicle to make it the first water-hybrid
police car in the country.
De Quinqua
said he donated his technology to the city government and has piloted his
“water reactor” using a vehicle of the city general services office and driven
by its chief, Romeo Concio.
De Quinqua
had promised to design and manufacture another device for the Baguio police.
If it is
successful, Concio said the city government may outfit the fleet of Baguio
vehicles with the device that would cost about P30,000 each.
But De
Quinqua provided little details about his work, except to stress that he has
been working on this invention since the 1960s.
“I did
consider developing an electronic car, but I figured it would only make the
public reliant on companies that produce electricity. I wanted to give the
public more freedom,” he said.
“For
communities near water, all drivers need to do is fetch water from a creek or collected
water from the rain and their cars will run efficiently and environmentally
friendly. How can they tax rain?” he said.
A group
promoting sustainable transport, however, is arranging for a test drive in
Baguio of an electronic jeepney, as another way of reducing air pollution.
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