Traffic emergency powers in August

MANILA, Philippines – Incoming leaders of Congress are setting the stage for the grant of emergency powers to president-elect Rodrigo Duterte to help him address traffic woes in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu effectively and with greater speed.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, likely to be the next Senate president, said he and presumptive speaker Pantaleon Alvarez have talked about the parameters of emergency powers for Duterte, to include among others the lifting of bidding procedures for transport-related projects.

Congress under the Duterte administration is set to convene on July 25.

Pimentel said the incoming 17th Congress would be waiting for the final draft of a bill on the proposed emergency powers being prepared by Duterte’s classmate, now incoming transportation secretary Arthur Tugade.

The senator said under the emergency powers being worked out, bidding for maintenance contracts, procurement of coaches, railway tracks and signalling systems, among others, related to the LRT and MRT operations would be done away with.

“The restrictions in bidding rules, amounting to a time limited confiscation of private property by forcing the private owner to allow for public use and overriding ordinances so that you can now standardize the traffic rules,” the senator said.

“For this limited time, when you can’t function properly following regular rules, we have to exempt ourselves from some of the rules and then some power that you don’t have to order the opening of certain roads would be given to you… Order the opening of private roads in subdivisions. That’s emergency powers,” Pimentel, who is also a lawyer, explained.

Pimentel recommended different measures for tackling traffic problems in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu. 

Pimentel said he would discuss with Alvarez the setting of a timeline, even as he expects Congress to grant the emergency powers by August or September this year.

There are suggestions to make such emergency powers effective for two years.

“The shorter the better… because it would be the Philippines that would suffer under a long-term emergency. It’s a sign that democracy does not work, government does not work, because you are always in an emergency,” he pointed out.

Asked if emergency powers will also empower the president to review and revoke earlier contracts entered into by the Aquino administration, particularly by current transportation chief Joseph Emilio Abaya, Pimentel said there is a need to review all contracts that may be disadvantageous to the government “with or without emergency powers.”

According to Pimentel, Duterte can be empowered to scrap the contracts deemed burdensome to taxpayers.

He also said any emergency powers for Duterte would not cover law enforcement, such as the curfew on minors.

On the issue of the big volume of vehicles traversing Metro Manila roads, Pimentel said the government may consider increasing tax for new vehicles to make them less affordable.

Volunteer

Meanwhile, outgoing Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina is willing to be Metro Manila’s traffic czar under the Duterte administration.

“I will accept the job if it is offered to me. I will help. I am a logistics man, and traffic is partly a problem of logistics,” he said in a television interview.

He said he would not reject an offer to serve the nation in another position.

The Duterte administration is planning to declare a traffic crisis in Metro Manila and is asking Congress for emergency powers to solve the problem. It is not yet clear what those powers would be.