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Thursday, March 28, 2024

‘Road-clearing big fight vs. corruption’

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Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza has urged Malacañang to issue an executive order that will deal with all the road excavations left unattended by public works contractors and private firms supplying water, gas, electricity and telecommunications services.

“We need highly disciplined road diggings, considering that there could be up two million of them nationwide every year, including those done by utility companies,” Atienza said.

“Road excavation permit applicants should be billed rising hourly fees so they will be coerced to complete their work without delay,” said Atienza, former three-term mayor of Manila.

Atienza also said public works contractors and utility firms should also be required to pay extra charges if they chose to do their work on weekdays, instead of weekends.

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He also urged Malacañang to order ‘highly disciplined’ road diggings by public works contractors and utility firms.

“Every Tom, Dick and Harry illegally occupying and obstructing a public road or sidewalk is paying a bribe to somebody,” Atienza said.

“This is why we consider President Rodrigo Duterte’s road and sidewalk-clearing push as a Herculean fight against corruption,” Atienza said.

Atienza described the State’s police powers as “the ability of Malacañang down to local government officials to compel obedience to laws, and to regulate behavior and enforce order for the improvement of public welfare.”

According to Atienza, the corruption that pervades the illegal use of roads and sidewalks – as public transport terminals, parking spaces and vending areas – involved crooked local motor vehicle traffic bosses, active and retired police and military officers and barangay officials, among others, according to Atienza.

On July 29, the President, through Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año, ordered all governors and mayors down to barangay chairpersons to unblock all roads and sidewalks within their jurisdiction inside 60 days, under pain of swift administrative suspension by Malacañang.

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