ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AWARENESS AMONG TRICYCLE DRIVERS IN DIGOS CITY, PHILIPPINES

As humankind progresses into an age of heavy economic change, motor vehicle ownership rapidly increases, significantly altering Earth's biogeochemical composition, resulting in environmental pollution and loss of ecological stability. Given the need for global action, this study, however, investigated the level of environmental awareness in terms of environmental laws and environmental city ordinances in Digos City, Philippines. A quantitative-descriptive method was utilized in employing the study. A modified self-made questionnaire was administered to 200 tricycle drivers of Digos City, Philippines. Results revealed that older tricycle drivers and those who have long experiences have better awareness on environmental laws and city ordinances compared to young tricycle drivers and those who have shorter experiences as tricycle drivers. Thus, there is still a great need for heavy reinforcement regarding environmental legal frameworks, especially among young tricycle drivers in Digos City, Philippines.


Introduction
The hunger for change breeds various pollutants that affect not just Earth but also its inhabitants. As humankind progresses into an age of heavy economic change, motor vehicle ownership rapidly increases and significantly alters Earth's biogeochemical composition, resulting in environmental pollution and loss of ecological stability. Motor vehicular exhaust pollutants to the air and cause various health-related issues and environmental challenges such as climate change and global warming due to excessive greenhouse gases (Bennett et al., 2002;Karlsson, 2004). Also, ignorance and irresponsible human activities yield poor environmental health (Peter and Cheruto, 2013;Rogan, 2019).
i Correspondence: email tomasdiquito@umindanao.edu.ph MV drivers. As the main transportation locally, tricycle's exhausts emissions affect the city's environment and its inhabitants more. Environmental education and awareness among tricycle drivers can lessen environmental degradation and be more environmentally educated on the many aspects of environment-related issues.

Objectives
This study aims to uncover the environmental regulation awareness among tricycle drivers in Digos City, Philippines. Specifically, it is guided by the following objectives: 1) Determine the environmental laws and environmental city ordinance awareness among tricycle drivers in Digos City, Philippines. 2) Identify if there is a significant difference in the level of environmental regulation awareness among tricycle drivers when analyzed by their age and number of years in the job.

Material and Methods
This study utilizes a quantitative-descriptive research design. The study used this research design to assess the level of environmental regulations awareness of tricycle drivers in Digos City, Philippines, in 2021. There were 200 respondents chosen using the convenience sampling technique. In developing the survey questionnaire, some part of the questionnaire was adapted from Manila Solid Waste Management Project (2003), and some items were developed by the researchers. In addition, the researchers also translate the questions in the questionnaire in the native language of the area to ensure the full use of each item. Moreover, to ensure that the research questionnaire serves its purpose, the questionnaire was validated by experts and then underwent a reliability test. With these, a total of thirty-two (32) items were included in the survey questionnaire. The survey questionnaire was printed and distributed to the respondents. Moreover, in employing the data collection with the ongoing health crisis (Covid-19 Pandemic), the researchers strictly adhere to the health safety protocol implemented by the Department of Health in the City of Digos, Philippines. In interpreting the data, the mean score was used to determine the respondents' environmental laws and environmental city ordinance awareness. In addition, table 1 shows the Likert-type scale used to interpret the descriptive data in the mean score. Moreover, the Kruskal Wallis test identified the significant difference in the levels of environmental regulations awareness among tricycle drivers when analyzed by age and number of years in the job.  Table 2 shows the characteristics of the respondents. In terms of age, the highest age group who participated the survey were 29 to 38 years old (n=67, 33.5%), followed by 18 -28 years old (n=65, 32.5%), 39 -48 years old (n=44, 22%), 49 -58 years old (n=24, 12%) respectively. In terms of years in the job, the highest number of years were, 26 -30 years (n=1, < 1%), followed by 21 to 25 years (n=5, < 1%), 16 -20 years (n=17, 8.5%), 11 -15 years (n=59, 29.5%), 6 to 10 years (n=70, 35%), and finally 1 to 5 years (n=48, 24%) respectively. Based on the data, majority of the tricycle drivers in Digos City, Philippines has 6 to 10 years (n=70, 35%) experienced and the longest in the job is 26 -30 years (n=1. < 1%).  Table 3 shows the level of environmental regulation awareness among tricycle drivers in Digos City, Philippines. Two indicators are being observed, the first is the awareness of the tricycle drivers in terms of environmental laws, and the second is in terms of environmental city ordinances. The overall mean yields 3.86 (SD=0.561), which means that the environmental awareness of tricycle drivers in Digos City is often observed. The environmental awareness of tricycle drivers in terms of environmental law yields a mean score of 3.65 (SD=0.620), which is interpreted as oftentimes observed. This means that the tricycle drivers show positive traits in the existing environmental laws, with a high awareness of this indicator. Brick and Lewis (2016) revealed that the influence of personality traits on emission-reducing behavior is one of the highlighted predictors for behavior after being mediated by environmental attitudes. Moreover, in terms of environmental city ordinances, a mean score of 4.07 (SD=0.555), which was interpreted as oftentimes, were observed. This means that the tricycle drivers in Digos City show cooperation through abidance in the existing environmental ordinances to help lessen the environmental harm as inflicted by human actions due to fuel emissions from motorcycles. As environmental problems continue to alarm society, the people also learn to show concern and cooperation. Table 4 shows a Kruskal Wallis test on differences. The result showed that there is a significant difference in the tricycle drivers' level of environmental regulation awareness based on their ages, Chi-square (3,200) = 32.410, p <. 01. In Table 4, those aged 49 to 58 years old have higher mean ranks (148.81) as compared to those aged 39 to 48 (mean rank = 120.98), aged 29 to 38 (mean rank = 88.51), and 18 to 28 (mean rank = 81.15). This is also observed in terms of awareness in environmental laws (Chi-square (3,200) = 33.739, p <. 01) and in environmental city ordinance (Chi-square (3,200) = 24.150, p <. 01). This means that the older tricycle drivers have a better awareness of environmental laws and provisions implemented. Morrison and Beer (2017) concluded that aged '40s and '50s, and '60s showed a stronger relationship between age and pro-environmental attitudes. Older age among tricycle drivers significantly contributes to its high level of awareness.  Table 5 shows a Kruskal Wallis test on differences showed that there is a significant difference in the tricycle drivers' level of environmental regulations awareness based on the number of years that they have served on this job, Chi-square (5,200) = 30.992, p <. 01. The result shows that those who have been tricycle drivers for 26 to 30 years have higher mean ranks (197.00) as compared to those who were drivers for 20 to 25 years (mean rank = 184.20), followed by 11 to 15 years (mean rank = 119.69), then 16 to 20 years (mean rank = 117.76), 6 to 10 years (mean rank = 85.92), and 1 to 5 years (mean rank = 81.32). This is also observed in terms of awareness in environmental laws (Chi-square (5,200) = 30.357, p <. 01) and in environmental city ordinance 200) = 26.290,p <. 01). This may mean that those who have been tricycle drivers for longer have a better awareness of the implementation of environmental laws and provisions. This idea is similar to Thaller, Fleiß, and Brudermann's (2020) claim, where climate-friendly behavior differs across socio-demographic groups.

Recommendations
After contemplating the analyzed results, the researchers came out with specific recommendations: 1) For future researchers, the researchers suggest looking into the attitudes and behaviors of tricycle drivers towards environmental regulations. 2) Policymakers and regulators should strengthen the environmental regulations campaign to the public, especially the youth since younger tricycle drivers are less aware than older tricycle drivers. 3) Tricycle drivers should be participating in environmental programs to increase their environmental regulations awareness and become catalysts of environmental sustainability.

Conclusion
Based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions are drawn. The tricycle drivers in Digos City, Philippines, are environmentally aware and educated regarding environmental laws and environmental city ordinances. Furthermore, the findings revealed that in terms of age, older tricycle drivers in Digos City have better awareness and education on environmental laws and environmental city ordinances compared to young tricycle drivers. Meanwhile, in terms of the number of years in the job, those who have been tricycle drivers for longer years have better awareness and education on environmental laws and environmental city ordinances.

Conflict of Interest Statement
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
About the Authors Uriarte, Coni Richel Mamalias and Fraile, Roxane Quilo, Diquito are undergraduate students taking up a Bachelor of Secondary Education major in Science at the University of Mindanao Digos College, Philippines, under the supervision of Mr. Tomas Jr A. Diquito. Their interests include students' attitudes while learning in the new normal setting, strategies in teaching science, and game-based learning. They are also interested in the new normal setting that dramatically affects the students in terms of their study habits and motivation to do tasks. Moreover, they are a challenge as to what strategies are best and appropriate when teaching science with laboratory tasks in which students will have first-hand experience. Science is easier understood when done. Diquito Tomas Jr Aquino is a graduate of Master of Arts in Education major in Biology at the University of Southeastern Philippines. He is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program at the same University. He is a Licensed Teacher in his country, teaching both professional and specialized courses.