By Giovanni Nilles and Marvin Sy (The
Philippine Star) | Updated August 12, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - The public can
trust President Duterte with emergency powers that the administration is asking
from Congress because these are not absolute and limited only to solving
traffic problems in the country, Malacañang said yesterday.
Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the
Senate committee on public services hearing the various resolutions on the
issue, also thinks there is nothing to fear with the grant of emergency powers
to the President to address traffic congestion.
Some sectors expressed fear that
Duterte would abuse the emergency powers, if granted by Congress, as the
President earlier floated the idea of declaring martial law in the country to
solve the illegal drug problem.
Duterte made the remark as he scored
Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno for her instruction to judges in the
President’s list of personalities with alleged links to the illegal drug trade
not to surrender unless a warrant of arrest was issued against them.
“We can trust that the President
will (not) go beyond (this),” presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said,
adding that Duterte had always espoused transparency in governance and even
issued an executive order on freedom of information to allow people to take a
look at government records and transactions.
Abella added that, at the moment,
there was really no basis for the President to declare martial law.
Poe said that she was looking at
coming out with the decision on emergency powers by December or before the
adjournment of Congress for its Christmas break.
Transportation Secretary Arthur
Tugade pleaded for emergency powers to deal with the many obstacles in coming
up with a solution to the country’s traffic woes, both on the roads and in the
air.
Poe, for her part, said sufficient
safeguards would be in place to ensure that the emergency powers would not be
abused.
Apart from limiting the emergency
powers to a period of two to three years, Poe said that the implementation of
the various programs and projects by the executive branch would be under the
watchful eye of Congress.
“We can put also other conditions,
like there will be an oversight committee composed of some members from the
House and some members from the Senate to make sure all the deliverables are
complied with,” Poe said.
“I am supportive but we are not abdicating
our role in also checking on the executive. That is really
important. We have to tread a fine line between being supportive and being
permissive, and being cautious and being obstructionist. That is why there
are three branches of government and not just one, so that we can support each
other but we can also police each other,” she added.
Poe’s committee conducted a hearing
on the proposed emergency powers the other day, after which the senators aired
their support for the initiative.
Poe earlier said government
transactions must be transparent and compliant with the freedom of information
– a non-negotiable principle.
Conditions such as ensuring the
track record of the supplier, enough capitalization of suppliers and no
conflict of interest are among the details that senators wanted to see in the
final form of the emergency measure.
“I would like to see this
administration succeed but I am not going to give up on my role to make sure
that they actually do it according to the processes that are laid out to become
a law,” Poe said.
According to Poe, the people should
only be afraid of Duterte having emergency powers if Congress does not have the
power to withdraw them.
“And I think for as long as (the
executive) is complying with the restrictions and the provisions that
(Congress) set forth: the bidding or the procurement process is aboveboard
(and) they’re delivering on schedule,” Poe said.
“If they need those emergency powers
to be able to acquire right of way, properties or to be able to facilitate
faster relations with the local government units, why not? Again, there’s that
particular provision where Congress can take it back anytime if we feel that
it’s not needed anymore,” she added.
In appealing for emergency powers,
Tugade made various recommendations to the senators and said the traffic
problems were so complex they could not promise to wipe them out but only ease
the situation.
Aside from legal obstacles like
temporary restraining orders stopping government projects, Tugade said they
would need special powers to speed up procurement and other measures to deal
with the traffic problem.
Tugade likewise asked that one
person or body be designated to direct the traffic and be accountable for its
management, citing scenarios where the secondary roads were closed because of a
barangay basketball game and authorities could not seem to do anything about
it.
He also wanted to ask some private
villages to open their roads for public use as among the measures needed to
decongest EDSA.
Tugade said the problem could not be
solved overnight and asked the public for at least two years from the time
emergency power was given to see some improvements.
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