Ranged against time, President Rodrigo Duterte, for whom a subaltern has sought emergency powers before the Senate, has acknowledged incapacity to solve the daily nightmarish traffic while still in office up to 2022.
His bold remarks came after Agence France-Presse reported, short of disclosing figures, that some patients die en route to hospitals because of traffic jams in the major thoroughfares of Metro Manila.
“One senator said the issue can be discussed. I said, ‘What for?’ I cannot complete the project. I cannot clear EDSA with the remaining years of my term,” Duterte said.
Duterte, along with Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, had long called for emergency powers to address traffic congestion particularly in EDSA, Metro Manila’s major thoroughfare.
But emergency powers requires Congress approval and Senator Grace Poe, who heads the Senate committee on public services, has blocked the request of the President.
In related developments:
• Senator Grace Poe defended herself from the punches thrown by Duterte over her refusal to grant emergency powers to address the “hellish traffic” at the main highway of the metropolis, saying she should not be blamed if “EDSA will rot.”
“Am I the traffic czar? Am I the Metro Manila Development Authority?” asked Poe, chairman of the Senate public service committee hearing the request of the President that he be granted emergency powers to ease traffic gridlock.
The senator, who was taunted by the President as “atribida”—cocky and undaunted—for her hardline stance in refusing to give emergency powers, also questioned the President if she was the one entrusted to fix the monstrous traffic.
Poe said if she had the power, she would have a different response to this problem.
• Heeding Duterte’s order, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority said it was ready to provide escort to emergency vehicles, particularly ambulance vehicles that have to squeeze through traffic.
The move followed reports that a patient died after an medical emergency ambulance failed to reach the hospital due to traffic.
According to MMDA Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Pircelyn Pialago, when the need arises, motorcycle riding traffic enforcers of the agency can be tapped to escort emergency vehicles all over Metro Manila so that emergency patients needing urgent care can reach hospitals the soonest possible time.
Ground traffic enforcers can also assist ambulances through traffic on roads congested with vehicles or when motorists refuse to give way.
“Let’s be honest, not all ambulances have emergency patients, and many are aleady back to barracks, while the rest are taking advantage of the siren emergency usage,” she said in Filipino.
She said she wanted first to see a clear and comprehensive plan from the government on how the emergency powers would be used.
Last month, Duterte blamed an “insolent lady” for not giving him emergency powers to solve the heavy traffic on EDSA, and then added the major artery should be left “to rot.”
“EDSA requires huge resources and that isn’t easy to get because if you’ll undergo normal procedure, the process takes so long. It takes months and bidding,” he said.
“Me, I will buy that from store, how much is that? Emergency powers just like what was given to Fidel Ramos and Aquino,” he said.
He ordered the Highway Patrol Group to accompany ambulances on their way to the hospitals.
Meanwhile, Duterte also lauded Manila Mayor Francisco Domagoso for his efforts to clean up the country’s capital.
“I admire him so I watch whenever he talks. He’s better than me, to be honest. He has better resolve than me,” Duterte said.
Poe and Transport Secretary Arturo Tugade locked horns earlier this week over Malacanang’s bid for an emergency powers.
Tugade has repeatedly insisted that the grant of emergency powers would help them resolve traffic congestion Metro Manila and other urban centers.
But Poe demanded specifics and a comprehensive traffic funds to establish where the funds would go.
Dismayed over Poe’s blocking his plea for emergency powers over her concerns on possible corruption behind the move, Duterte said he would no longer ask for it and reiterated his previous statement to just let EDSA rot.
But Poe clarified that she had never said that everybody in the government was corrupt.
“But I will admit that many are corrupt so we are just being cautious so we will not be shortchanged,” stressed Poe.
She also took potshots on some appointees of the President in the government.
She specially mentioned one who is being investigated due to the massive corruption in Bureau of Corrections which was exposed following the scuttled release of former Calauan Mayor Antonio Sanchez.
“So we really cannot give this [emergency powers] with closed eyes. Your eyes should indeed be wide open and you should look into the solutions and these are also our safeguards,” said Poe.
“If they have good solutions [to the traffic], I believe that it is their responsibility to come out with them,” she said.
In carefully inquiring into the emergency powers being asked, Poe said her primordial goal was to ensure the protection of the commuting public and the country as well.
Poe said she needed to ensure that such powers would not be abused that would eventually prejudice the rights and welfare of people.
She said the present crisis had been preceded by what she called decades of piecemeal planning and implementation.
For example, she said the idea of integrated terminals had existed since two administrations ago.
It was continued in the Aquino administration with the bidding of the PITx and the Taguig ITx; and then PITx opened, only for city terminals in Laguna and Valenzuela to be designated as new provincial terminals.
According to Poe, what the country needed was a transportation system master plan which would identify short, medium and long-term projects, with sufficient funding and achievable deadlines.
“I think no other urban area in the world has a longer list of unimplemented plans and decades of study than Mega Manila,” she said.
Furthermore, she noted there were existing laws which she described as sufficient for procurement and right-of-way acquisition.
She said the Supreme Court already issued cases and circulars addressing the delays in these cases.
“Clearly, for all intents and purposes, under these existing laws, a lot could have been done with or without emergency powers,”she said.
“It is not the lack of powers but the lack of a master plan. We have an approved dream plan but it is unclear if our transport agencies have adopted it for implementation. The cost to implement the dream plan is less than what we are losing daily due to the traffic problem,” she emphasized.
Pialago said all ambulances, especially those passing major thoroughfare under the agency’s jurisdiction, if it is an emergency, “don’t hesitate to seek help to our enforcers on the ground.”
