LEGISLATORS are duty-bound to review and monitor the implementation of the emergency powers that Congress is poised to grant President Rodrigo Duterte to solve the country’s traffic problem, Senator Grace Poe said Thursday.
She said an oversight committee would be established under the measure being deliberated on to solve the country’s traffic woes.
The committee will be composed of members from the Senate and the House of Representatives. It is one of the safeguards that lawmakers say are necessary during the implementation of Duterte’s extraordinary powers, which will be limited to two to three years.
‘‘We are not abdicating our role in checking on the executive,” said Poe, head of the Senate committee on public services.
“That it is really important. We have to tread a fine line between being supportive and being permissive and being cautious and being an obstructionist.”
Poe made her statement even as Malacañang on Thursday assured the public that Duterte would not go overboard should Congress give him emergency powers to solve the worsening traffic situation in the country, particularly in Metro Manila.
“The emergency powers being requested are not absolute and are limited to traffic,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella told reporters.
Transportation officials told senators during Wednesday’s Senate hearing that there was an urgent need to deal with the traffic nightmare, but vowed the extra powers to be granted the President to do so would not be abused.
Poe earlier said government transactions must be transparent and compliant with the Freedom of Information order from the Executive, adding such was a non-negotiable principle. Macon Ramos-Araneta and John Paolo Bencito
Conditions such as ensuring the track record of the supplier, enough capitalization of suppliers and no conflict of interest were among the details that senators wanted to see in the final form of the emergency measure, Poe said.
‘‘I would like to see this administration succeed, but I am not going to give up on my role to make sure that they actually do it according to the processes that are laid out to become a law,’’ she said.
She said Congress would withdraw the President’s emergency powers if necessary. Macon Ramos-Araneta and John Paolo Bencito
