Senate starts debates on emergency powers Tuesday

MANILA, Philippines (Philippines News Agency) — The Senate will begin interpellation Tuesday for the proposed emergency powers for President Rodrigo Duterte.

“We would start the plenary debates for the emergency powers so that we will finish and approve the bill at the soonest,” Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the Senate Committee on Public Services, said Monday.

Poe expressed hope that the emergency powers would be “part of the solution” to the country’s traffic woes and other transport problems.

Under Committee Report No. 24 or “An Act Compelling the Government to Address the Transportation and Congestion Crisis Through the Grant of Emergency Powers to the President,” Poe noted that alternative methods could be used to speed up implementation of key transportation projects.

However, Poe said that if emergency powers would be approved, it would be valid and effective until the next adjournment of Congress or in June 2019—unless sooner withdrawn.

The senator, meanwhile, assured that the Senate would work double time to ensure that the emergency powers will significantly ease commuters’ burdens.

She also reminded the Department of Transportation (DOTr) that “emergency powers is not a gift to the administration but a challenge that compels the executive to move.”