Designation of Tugade as traffic czar put on hold

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives has put on hold a proposal to designate Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade as the country’s traffic crisis manager as part of the emergency powers that Congress will grant to President Duterte.

“We want to know which part of the country is in traffic crisis. Where exactly is the crisis – in Metro Manila only or the whole of the Philippines? We need specifics,” said Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento, chairman of the House committee on transportation.

The committee nonetheless approved the creation of a technical working group that will consolidate the 10 bills – spearheaded by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez – pending before Congress on the emergency powers proposal.

The Sarmiento committee set aside for further deliberation the Department of Transportation (DOTr)’s proposed 40-page draft that grants more powers to Tugade, who should provide lawmakers with more details and define the parameters of the proposed emergency powers.

The House panel earlier called on Tugade to present a “roadmap” on when and how the proposed emergency powers for Duterte would solve the traffic crisis in Metro Manila, which may include air traffic as well.

Sarmiento required Tugade to submit a list of projects, the timeline for their implementation and the particular traffic issues that they would address and in what areas, aside from what he intends to do while waiting for the grant of emergency powers.

He said Tugade could already implement measures under existing laws and regulations, citing for instance that it only takes 28 days under the Procurement Law to finish the process of procuring supplies like car plates and driver’s licenses.

“A negotiated procurement, which the law allows, is a faster mode,” Sarmiento said.

He said the House would not grant “blanket and excessive powers which may be misused and abused by unscrupulous officials.”

Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, House minority leader, expressed fears the conflict of interest among Tugade’s underlings may affect adversely the government’s emergency powers for they may be perceived as working for the interests of their previous billionaire-bosses.

Suarez cited the role of Tugade and Undersecretary Noel Kintanar in the Metro Rail Transit-Light Railway Transit Common Station project since both were former executives of the contractors involved in the project.

“I have to be very straightforward with my concern. This concerns the Ayalas. Two of the executives – Tugade and Kintanar – are from Ayala firms or have done business with the Ayalas. They might favor the Ayalas’ business interests. That’s not right,” Suarez said.

The Speaker earlier expressed similar concerns on Undersecretary for Air Operations Bobby Lim, who was formerly country manager of the International Air Transport Association, and Undersecretary for Land Transport Anneli Lontoc.

Undersecretary Felipe Judan, meantime, has a shipping business with Ramon Ang’s Petron as customer. Ang is the chief executive officer of brewery giant San Miguel Corp.

Tugade also reportedly has his own forwarding business.

National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director-general Ernesto Pernia said Tugade also wanted to allow the Ang-owned Manila North Harbor Port Inc. to engage in international trade without public bidding despite opposition from port stakeholders.

MNHPI has an existing exclusive contract with the Philippine Ports Authority to operate only in domestic trade. Tugade, being DOTr secretary, is chairman of the PPA Board.

Final version

The Senate, on the other hand, is in the process of drafting a final version of a bill granting President Duterte emergency powers.

Senate public services committee chair Sen. Grace Poe said the panel will continue to hold technical working group meetings and have a draft bill submitted to plenary by November.

She said the Senate might approve the emergency powers bill in December after the chamber passes the proposed P3.35-trillion national budget for 2017.

In the course of five weeks, the committee has listened to the presentations of 53 resource persons and received 62 written submissions, “proving that inputs, as promised, are indeed crowd-sourced,” Poe said in the final hearing on the proposed emergency powers last week.

“We hope that what we have gathered through this series of hearings will help us craft an FOI-compliant, fiscally responsible, detailed, particular and deadline-oriented emergency powers bill,” the senator said.

Among the salient points of the DOTr’s proposal is the creation of a single traffic authority and exemptions from tedious procurement processes for transport and traffic-related projects while the emergency powers are in effect.

“We may allow shortcuts for as long as they do not shortchange the taxpayers,” Poe said.

Poe earlier warned Tugade that some officials who were responsible for forging apparently onerous contracts and policies that led to the traffic crisis in the country are still holding positions in his department.

She said efforts of the government to swiftly address the transportation crisis might be jeopardized by the presence of DOTr officials from the previous administration linked to questionable contracts and policies.

She cited the case of the MRT-3 where officials of the previous administration cancelled the supply and maintenance contract of the Japanese Sumitomo Corp., which had been the contractor for the system since it started operations, in favor of an unknown firm that apparently led to frequent accidents and breakdowns of the trains.

Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito, during a hearing of the committee on emergency powers, also questioned the wisdom of tapping the services of a firm without track record to maintain the MRT-3.

Excuses and misinformation

Meanwhile, MRT Corp., the private owners of the MRT-3, has warned that maintenance continues to pose a threat to the lives of the riding public.

“The reports of cracks in the wheels of the MRT are alarming and a serious threat to the lives of commuters,” MRT Corp. director Rafael Perez de Tagle said.

He said the poor condition of rail tracks, a result of poor maintenance after Sumitomo Corp. was replaced by other maintenance operators, and overloading of trains to almost twice the original capacity have caused extreme stress on the rail system.

Under Sumitomo, De Tagle said there was at least 80 percent availability of tracks at all times. “Today, it’s 80 percent excuses and misinformation,” he said.

De Tagle said MRT-3 general manager Roman Buenafe had refused the request of MRT Corp. to inspect the tracks. “What are they hiding?” he said.

“Nothing has changed since the time of Abaya. The possibility of derailment has not been addressed,” he warned, referring to former transportation secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya.

“Just like under the past administration, instead of addressing the problems, the maintenance provider is feeding the public misinformation to save face, at the risk of the lives of commuters.” – With Paolo Romero