PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte will push the construction of a 60-kilometer bullet-train system from Subic to Clark during his trip to China this month, an official said Wednesday.
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority chairman Martin Diño said the bullet train would be built through the Public-Private Partnership Program with a Chinese company.
He told lawmakers the project would be among the topics to be discussed during Duterte’s visit to China toward the end of this month.
Rep. Winston Castelo expressed conditional support for the proposal to give the Transport Department emergency powers to solve the traffic problems because “drastic problems require drastic solutions.”
But Congress should ensure that the projects to be implemented were properly identified and accountability and transparency were not compromised.
“It is important for Congress to examine in detail how the power is to be exercised, what are its limitations, and what measures are adopted to ensure that the projects really address the problem,” Castelo said.
Rep. Cesar Sarmiento, head of the House committee on transportation, said his panel set aside the emergency powers for President Duterte and renamed the proposal to Traffic Crisis Act.
He said emergency powers had negative connotations that were making other sectors uncomfortable.
In the past hearing conducted by Sarmiento’s panel, it was established that the traffic crisis was only hurting Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao.