President Rodrigo Duterte recently announced that he would not accept invitations to speak at special affairs in Metropolitan Manila, except for the really important ones. Duterte explained that his presidential motorcade to and from those events will only add to the daily traffic nightmare in the metropolis. The President is also considering spending more time in his native Davao City than in Malacañang if the traffic mess at the national capital region remains horrid.
During the administration of ex-President Benigno Aquino III, the traffic problem was mismanaged by the Metro Manila Development Authority under then-chairman Francis Tolentino. Toward the end of his term, a desperate Aquino ordered the Highway Patrol Group, a military unit, to manage traffic along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue. Under the HPG, the situation eased outside the rush hours.
At any rate, President Duterte announced that he is creating a traffic superbody to handle the traffic situation not only in Metropolitan Manila but likewise in Metropolitan Cebu.
Duterte’s allies in Congress want that traffic superbody to be under the direct supervision of the President. That’s expected, because solving the traffic mess is a matter of law enforcement, and law enforcement is an executive, not a legislative function.
The problem is that Congress wants to vest the president with the “emergency power” to abolish existing executive offices to solve the traffic mess. That’s disturbing.
While the power of the President to reorganize existing executive offices is conceded, the power to abolish an existing executive office created by Congress is something else. The latter power is legislative in character, and is exclusively vested in Congress by the Constitution. Congress cannot delegate to the President its power to abolish an office created by law. That will be an undue delegation of legislative power, which is unconstitutional.
Another privilege contemplated by Congress for the traffic superbody is its exemption from compliance with the requirements under Republic Act No. 9184, or the Government Procurement Reform Act. Exemption means that the traffic superbody can enter into negotiated contracts for all supplies and services, in lieu of a public bidding.
Since Republic Act No. 9184 was enacted precisely to do away with negotiated contracts, exempting the traffic superbody from compliance with the procurement law invites suspicion. Since the solution to the traffic mess is predicted to cost hundreds of millions of pesos worth of products and services, this amount alone should be enough reason to require the traffic superbody to comply with the procurement law, if only to protect taxpayer money from grafters and cheats.
In other words, the exemption from the procurement law which Congress wants to give to the traffic superbody will inevitably encourage corruption. The Duterte administration, installed by a very large mandate of reform-seeking voters, cannot afford to be tarnished by anomalies.
While Duterte himself is seen by many as an honest and competent president, his subordinates in key executive offices do not enjoy the same reputation.
Take the case of Emerson Carlos, the incompetent MMDA chairman under ex-President Aquino. Carlos is back as MMDA officer-in-charge. He wasn’t able to solve the traffic mess under Aquino. With December just around the corner, Carlos will pay more attention to the annual Metro Manila Film Festival than to his traffic-management duties. One of his predecessors, Bayani Fernando, is currently facing criminal raps for allegedly receiving P1.6 million from film festival funds.
To justify its proposed measure, Congress claims that the traffic situation in both the NCR and in Cebu has reached “emergency proportions.” Perhaps it has, but then, can’t the traffic mess be resolved without doing away with the requirements of a law designed to guard against overpriced government procurement contracts? Why enact a law which allows too many exemptions in the first place?
Before a grant of “emergency powers” to the traffic superbody is made, the superbody should exhaust all possible solutions to the traffic mess within the existing legal framework. Yes, there are solutions.
With manifest impunity, motorcycle drivers ignore traffic lights, overtake cars obeying a red light at a busy intersection, block pedestrian lanes while waiting for the green light, and use any lane they want along Edsa and other major roads. This is particularly true for those delivering food from fast food joints. Since the motorcycle is the favorite vehicle of thieves and killers, its use must be regulated. Many law-abiding motorists demand that motorcycles be allowed on metropolitan roads only during the same hours allotted for trucks and large vehicles, and that they should stay only on a designated lane.
Tricycle drivers are worse. Likewise with manifest impunity, they disregard traffic regulations, belch smoke in violation of the clean air law, and move around at night without headlights. Tricycles should be confined to village roads.
Jeepney and taxicab drivers are the worst. They load and unload anywhere they please, and they have nothing but contempt for traffic regulations. Many jeepneys do not use their headlights at night, on the mistaken notion that they can minimize on their fuel. Jeepney drivers also carry rocks with them which they throw at motorists who quarrel with them.
Traffic violation tickets against erring drivers of public utility vehicles should rain. That way, they will be forced to obey the laws.
A minimum speed limit must be imposed on the fast lanes of Edsa and major roads. Slow moving vehicles traveling indiscriminately on the highways delay traffic flow needlessly.
MMDA traffic enforcers should be visible everywhere, all the time —even into the late night hours. When traffic enforcers are visible, motorists are compelled to be law-abiding.
The traffic superbody should solve the traffic mess using basic solutions before it should be given “emergency powers.” If Congress abandons its constitutional power to the President, then Congress may as well enact a law allowing the President to abolish it. Reformists will definitely relish that idea.
