THAT was the declaration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. under Executive Order (EO) 12 signed on Jan. 13, 2023, but released only last week.

EO 12 is titled “Temporarily modifying the rares of import duty on electric vehicles, parts and components under Section 1611 of Republic Act 10683, otherwise known as the ‘Customs Modernization and Tariff Act’.”

The goal is to encourage car buyers to consider buying electric vehicles (EVs) and make the industry behind EVs flourish.

This temporary zero tariff policy will last for five years and will include not only EVs but spare parts and components. Quite a logical step since EVs will need to replace parts at some point.

Local car companies have hailed this move as one of this administration’s best considering they have been pushing Congress to enact laws that will allow more perks for selling EVs in the country.

Taxes for these cars are, of course, one of the biggest costs for bringing them to our shores.

It is expected that with this new policy, companies like Toyota, Nissan, Kia, Hyundai and BYD will now have a bigger leeway to peddle their EVs.

The ultimate goal of EO 12 is to reduce pollution and carbon emissions. Notably, our country has one of the highest carbon footprint in Southeast Asia.

Well and good for that goal, and yes, I understand and appreciate the effort and concern.

But what the EO policy fails to address is the potential toxic waste from the wider use of EVs.

In Europe, the discussion of EVs has been elevated to the point of questioning how it will affect the use of power plants and electricity generators.

So far, worldwide, the biggest source of electricity is still oil and coal plants. Will the proliferation of EVs reduce carbon emissions or simply transfer it to the power plants?

And the matter of toxic wastes cannot also be ignored because, as it is, regular batteries already comprise a huge chunk of problematic waste accumulated globally.

Cars, appliances, mobile phones, laptops and most gadgets have batteries that need to be disposed of properly but are not.

And now we have to deal with the huge battery requirements of EVs.

Then there is the issue of mining the minerals needed to make these batteries. Zinc, lithium and nickel are a few of these minerals. Will it be environmentally safe and conducive to mine these materials at a much larger volume to satisfy the need of vehicles?

In 2017, 86.05 million motor vehicles were sold worldwide and will we need to supply batteries for as many cars in the future?

It may be just me, but I think we should consider these questions and the scenarios they create.