Explainer: Do traffic emergency powers include special funding?

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday indicated that presidential emergency powers to deal with Metro Manila's traffic woes—powers he has since stopped asking Congress to grant—would have included special funding.

In a televised interview with Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, Duterte was asked about heavy traffic along EDSA. The president answered: "right at the beginning, we raised the possibility of being granted emergency powers. Okay. ‘Yun talaga. You cannot improve on things without money nowadays."

"That is accepted. Kada galaw mo, pera (Every move requires money)," he also said.

He said, though, that Congress wanted hearings on the emergency powers and the measures that the government intended to implement, making him lose interest.

Duterte said in the official transcript of the Presidential Communications Operations Office:

"Kung ganun lang naman ang tingin ninyo sa akin, eh ‘di huwag na tayong maghiram. Do not give me powers anymore. Just leave EDSA as it is. Ayan.
‘Yun man ang promise ko nga, EDSA that I will… Ano ang gagamitin ko diyan? Laway ko? Pero kung marinig mo na sana, 'ay hindi, malaki ito,
corruption lang ito.' Kung wala kayong tiwala sa akin, eh 'di huwag na. Ako na ngayon ang tumanggi. Ayaw ko na."

(If that's how you see me, then let's no longer borrow money. Do not give me powers anymore. Just leave EDSA as it is. Ayan. That is my promise about EDSA that I will… What will I use there? My saliva? But to hear them talk: 'This is big money, it's prone to corruption.' If you don't trust me, then never mind. I was the one who declined [the powers]. I lost my appetite for it.)
 

RELATED: Call revived for Duterte emergency powers vs Metro Manila traffic

Funding sources under emergency powers bills

Bills granting such powers pending in Congress, however, do not stipulate special funding, and instead mandates the use of items in the budget, including savings from special purpose funds (SPFs) as well as foreign aid.

The government can tap both SPFs and foreign assistance without the need for congressional approval.

House Bill 6425 and Senate Bill 1284 also grant the use of proceeds from the Motor Vehicle Users' Charge to solve traffic not only in EDSA or Metro Manila, but also in key cities such as Davao and Cebu.

Under Republic Act 8794 that authorized collection of the MVUC, the departments of Public Works and Highways as well as Transportation may tap collections from MVUC for projects like "maintenance of, and the improvement of drainage of national primary roads" and installation of traffic lights.

Emergency powers work around procurement laws

While emergency powers do not grant additional funding, they do allow the president to circumvent existing procurement laws to fast-track transportation projects.

It also allows the government to open up private areas like subdivisions to traffic, an idea floated by the Transportation department itself. 

Emergency powers also give national government oversight on three-wheeled vehicles like tricycle used for public utility and re-arrange franchises, if necessary. These vehicles are under the supervision of local government units. 

Traffic an election issue

Upon Duterte's assumption to office in July 2016, his economic managers floated the idea of asking legislators for emergency powers to tackle Metro Manila's traffic problems, which was then an election issue.

The administration of President Benigno Aquino III suffered public backlash for failing to ease traffic, and no less than his anointed successor, Manuel Roxas II, lost to Duterte because of it. 

More than two years under Duterte, however, EDSA remains in gridlock, while the infamous Metro Rail Transit 3 or MRT-3 remains dilapidated.

Bills granting emergency powers to Duterte have been pending on second reading on both Senate and the House of Representatives. 

The bills have been stuck and were no longer prioritized ever since Duterte himself said in May 2017 that he would no longer force the legislature to grant him such powers. 

"If the Congress would want to give it to me, fine. It would expedite things. But if they are fearful of corruption there because there is no bidding under emergency powers, then, they have every right to doubt it," he said in Davao City then.