Lawmakers want Tugade sacked over traffic mess

MANILA, Philippines - Some members of the House of Representatives want Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade out of President Duterte’s Cabinet for failing to ease traffic congestion in Metro Manila.

“The fact that Tugade failed to at least ease the worsening traffic crisis in Manila as promised, it is but proper that he should not be confirmed,” Rep. Gary Alejano of party-list Magdalo said.

The lawmaker from the House independent minority bloc agreed with the decision of the Commission on Appointments (CA) to bypass Tugade’s ad interim appointment before Congress went on Halloween break last week.

Navotas City Rep. Tobias Tiangco also opposed Tugade’s reappointment.

“While it is the prerogative of the President to reappoint Tugade, Congress had made its sentiment known through the CA,” the lawmaker from Camanava (Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas-Valenzuela) said, referring to the appointment commission’s decision to bypass Tugade.

House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez was more reasonable.

“Let us give him another month. If people still experience the traffic nightmare during the Christmas season, then the President should fire him already,” the congressman from Quezon province said.

Suarez also backed Alejano’s position that Tugade does not need emergency powers to start resolving the traffic crisis. He scored Tugade for not even having a roadmap to end traffic jams and improve mobility nationwide.

“Secretary Tugade does not need emergency powers. The President can just give instructions to the National Economic and Development Authority and bid immediately (to do underground and ground levels mass transit systems),” Suarez said.

But Rep. Gus Tambunting of Parañaque believes Tugade should be given another chance.

“We will achieve less if we keep on changing leadership every time we feel that the current secretary of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is not performing. If the President trusts Tugade, then we should stand by and support both of them,” he said.

Comprehensive solution

Meanwhile, the Senate will insist on including the air and sea transport sectors in the coverage of the bill seeking to grant emergency powers to President Duterte to address the transportation crisis in the country, Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito said yesterday.

Ejercito was commenting on reports that the House of Representatives is set to reject the proposal from the DOTr in its Traffic Crisis Bill to include aviation and sea transport as the government needs to expedite infrastructure projects to address congestion in those sectors.

“If we’re going to implement a solution, we might as well make it a comprehensive one,” the senator, one of the authors of the emergency powers bill in the Senate, told reporters.

He said one of the common and persistent reasons foreign investors as well as tourists do not flock to the country is the lack of adequate transportation infrastructure, including ports and airports, along with sufficient navigation equipment.

“We need to modernize our transportation infrastructure, like trains, and a comprehensive emergency powers bill could speed that up,” Ejercito said.

Among the provisions of the bill filed in the Senate and the House is one that allows Duterte to shorten the procurement process of projects while the emergency powers are in effect.

The measure also temporarily disallows the issuance of temporary restraining orders on priority infrastructure projects by the lower courts. Any project, however, may be questioned before the Supreme Court. – With Paolo Romero