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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Emergency powers

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If President-elect Rodrigo Duterte would be given emergency powers by Congress to solve the traffic gridlock in Metro Manila, it will be the first of its kind anywhere in the world. It is also not necessary because there are enough government powers to implement the needed measures to lessen traffic gridlock. All that is needed is political will.

The pronouncement of the incoming secretary Mark Villar of the Department of Public Works and Highways that traffic will improve in two to three years was also too optimistic. This is because there are no new road projects except the skyway extension that will connect SLEX and NLEX. At the rate road projects are implemented by the government, it will take years to even start one. And by the time a road is completed, there will be a need to start a new one.

We have to remember that the rate of car sales will be 500,000 vehicles or more in three years. If emergency powers mean that President Duterte can build new roads immediately, then the three or four major road projects should be going on in Metro Manila simultaneously, just to keep up with the back log to include a revolutionary change of the driving culture in this country. These do not include the need to rationalize the operation of the public transport sector and a plan to be implemented if and when President Duterte does get emergency powers.

We also have to bear in mind that whatever we do, we will not be able to solve the traffic problems the way we want it. What we can only do is to institute measures to improve travel time and driving conditions to a more tolerable level. Achieving these, however, is difficult because of some built-in constraints in the system.

For example, government agencies that have something to do with road transportation and traffic sometimes contribute to the problem instead of solving them. Those engaged in providing public transport at times also become the obstacle to reform. Every time the government wants to institute changes like prohibiting very old vehicles on the road, this becomes very political and a test of will.

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Maybe the thing that incoming President Duterte can do is simply to get every motorist to toe the line.

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There was a media report that the incoming Duterte administration plans to increase the gross pay of the lowest policeman to P50,000. The report went on to say that this increase was doable. Part of the reason for this was to give the police a decent living wage that would discourage corruption. Doubling or tripling police pay, however, may be too much for the government to afford because if police pay increases, this will have to include teachers and soldiers who are basically on the same boat.

President Aquino recently signed into law pay increases for the police and military but did not include retirees. His main reason was that the government would go bankrupt if the retirees were included. For government retirees as a whole, knowing where to get the money for medicine and emergency medical treatment is always a struggle. All these are existential threats to elderly retirees who do not have other resources except the pension that they receive from the government.

Yet President Aquino ignored all these and refused to include police and military retirees in the pay increase. But according to reliable sources, he and some of his very close associates have been receiving monthly money allocations from a government-controlled corporation since January of 2011 to the tune of hundreds of millions of pesos every month for their retirement. When they leave office in 14 days, President Aquino, his hatchet man Paquito Ochoa Jr. and others will be wallowing in money that they will never be able to spend in two or three lifetimes. Hopefully, the incoming administration will have them investigated and sent to jail. They should not be able to get away with this.

When President Aquino took office, he showcased daang matuwid by charging former President Gloria Arroyo with plunder and impeaching Chief Justice Renato Corona. Unfortunately, it was just a mask to hide his own corruption. In fact, the month before the May 9 elections, he spent the whole month looking for a group of people who seem to have found out about the money he and his group were receiving monthly that he completely forgot the affairs of the government. This eventually led to the defeat of his man Mar Roxas.

When President-elect Duterte finally assumes office on June 30, the public will be expecting a lot. Anti-corruption is also one of the pillars of his administration. If he sticks to what we have seen so far, perhaps there will be a chance for a tectonic change in the way the national government is run for the better and with less corruption. Already, members of Congress are being warned to dress simply for the next State of the Nation Address of the president and avoid the scandalous display of wealth.

Six years, however, is a long time in politics. Power and money have always had a way of corrupting even the best of men. Let us wait and see if this promising start can hold. 

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