Manila City Hall employees, mainly residents of neighboring Southern Tagalog provinces belonging to the ?Clean Air Lovers and Movers? coalition, are urging higher authorities ?to keep our places pollution-free by regularly monitoring black smoke-belching vehicles and also obnoxious smoke-billowing industrial plants and factories in our midst.?

Members of CALM led by Alejandro Eugenio told Standard Today that fast-paced industrialization was taking its toll in the region lying right next to Metro Manila.

?We chose to live in Laguna and Cavite to escape the heat, dust and smoke of the metropolis. Likewise, we preferred to bring our families and loved ones in this kind of rustic setting to live healthier and live longer. But with the spur of progress and development shifting our way, what with the unstoppable mushrooming of industrial plants and factories emitting possibly poisonous smoke, it?s not farfetched that our effort will all go to naught,? the group?s statement said.

CALM is asking Environment Secretary Lito Atienza to look into infrastructure contractors with batching plants on the south tollway particularly in Canlubang and Calamba if they have an environment complicance certificate at all. Tony Macapagal