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Click here to read: Review of Related Literature Last part [PETC 2013 Thesis Part 3]

METHODOLOGY

This chapter presented the research environment, methods, process and respondents in this study.  In 3.1, the research environment was described and was located in the map of the Philippines. Section 3.2 described the respondents of the study while 3.3 discussed the research instruments used. Section 3.4 detailed the process of getting the necessary information from the respondents. 

3.1 Research Environment

 This study was situated in Cebu City, one of the most developed cities in the Philippines. It was part of the Metro Cebu along with the cities of Talisay, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu and the municipalities of Naga, Minglanilla, Cordova, Consolacion, Liloan and Compostela.

Cebu's seasons were only dry and wet. Rainfall was not particularly high. Because of these, the city was less prone to crises and calamities that usually affect other Philippine economic landscape. Its high economic stability can be attributed to real estate, tourism, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), and retail.

These increasing amounts of industrial activities earned the representation of Cebu being like Manila of the 1980s, a city and time of famously high levels of pollution (Aranguez in Parco, 2008). Pollution from motor vehicle was one of the single largest sources of air pollution emissions. The exhaust of a motor vehicle was a complex mixture. Its composition depends on fuel used, type, age and operation of the engine. Figure 3.2 shows the increase of registered motor vehicles in Cebu City. 

Cebu City was a first class city and a tourist destination. The accessibility, convenience and location University of San Carlos – Main Campus were the other reasons for selecting the city as the research area.

3.2 Research Respondents

The respondents in this study were broadly categorized into two: the employees of Private Emission Testing Centers (PETCs) and the motor vehicle users. The department orders of DENR and DOTC, as well as RA8749, were the anchors of this research since it contained information regarding the process and/or other matter that were being raised. 

Employees of Private Emission Testing Centers (PETCs)

Only registered (thus, legally operational) PETCs in Cebu City were covered and included in the study. All available MVECTs answered the survey. Specifically, those working as emission testers or manager in the testing center were given priority as they have the first had knowledge on the daily operations of the emission testing center.

Aside from the survey, group discussions among MVECTs were conducted so as to verify and support the conducted survey. Meanwhile, the managers in each PETC were interviewed for some information.

Motor Vehicle Users

Republic Act No. 8794 categorized motor vehicles as passenger cars, utility vehicles, motorcycles, buses, trucks and trailers. As to ownership, these vehicles can either be private, government or for hire.

For the purpose of this research, only users who private-own motorcycles and cars were surveyed. Government-owned vehicles were directly under the supervision of DOTC, thereby expected to comply with all statutory requirements for operations.

Stratified and random sampling procedures will be used. Since the population of users who privately-own motorcycles and cars was large and unknown, it will be impossible to survey the whole population. Thus, 50 respondents from each subgroup were asked to answer the survey. The motor vehicle user answers were used to verify that the answers of the respondents in PETCs were being practiced and can be observed by the motor vehicle users. Group discussions were also held so as to assist and clarify some points that were raised in the questionnaire and ease the interpretation of the survey results.

The motor vehicle users must, however, satisfied the requirements of [1], owning the car or motorcycle, [2] had tried going to the PETCs and [3] had his/her car/motorcycle tested in the PETC in Cebu City.