SENATOR Ralph Recto criticized the Transport Department on Sunday for failing to come up with a plan to decongest the traffic gridlock and to propose projects that it can pursue once it is given emergency powers to solve the problem.
“Congress is willing to provide those emergency powers because we know that there is a crisis, that there is a problem,” Recto said.
“But there should be focus. Many of their projects just have titles. There are no detailed engineer designs, no feasibility studies”•not to mention there is no funding in 2017.”
Recto managed to make Transport Undersecretary Raoul Creencia to admit that his department still had no plan to decongest the traffic particularly in Metro Manila.
“We do not have a plan yet,” Creencia said.
When asked what specific areas nationwide the traffic crisis manager would handle, Creencia again admitted that his department had not yet made a list.
“You want a single authority, in effect a traffic crisis manager for the entire Philippines,” Recto said.
“You are asking for vast powers, and it is alarming that you do not have any plan.”
Recto also got Transport Undersecretary for Finance Gerry de Guzman to admit that the P1.27 trillion worth of projects submitted under the emergency powers package had no funding.
De Guzman initially said that his department was asking for a “special power budget” but he was immediately rebuffed by Recto, who told him that the emergency powers package measure was not a supplemental budget bill.
Senator Grace Poe, who heads the Senate committee on public services, also criticized the department.
“Perhaps, the [department] should focus on projects that will immediately solve the traffic problem,” Poe said.
“Perhaps you want to accomplish a lot of things, but many of the projects you listed might not really be helpful in solving the traffic problem.”