House to prioritize emergency powers on traffic

MANILA, Philippines – Incoming House speaker and Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez yesterday stressed the need to grant President Duterte emergency powers to solve the worsening traffic problem.

“We have a lot of priority bills that we have to pass the soonest possible time, including those that seek to address the traffic crisis in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu,” Alvarez told members of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) during the party’s fellowship in Makati.

But he clarified that the granting of emergency powers would only be limited to the solution of the traffic problem, which he said has become huge.

He said Congress would retain oversight functions to check any abuses of the emergency powers.

Alvarez said the deteriorating traffic situation in Metro Manila is most felt by employees who commute daily from their homes to their places of work.

Alvarez said even he is not exempt from the traffic gridlocks as he travels daily from his house in Makati City to the House of Representatives in Quezon City where he holds office.

“Every day, I need a minimum of two hours to travel to work,” he said.

“We really have to address this problem because the employees do not have a choice. They leave their houses so early in the morning to arrive at the office on time. At night, they get home late also because of the traffic. They no longer have time for their families,” he said.

‘Take cue from Rody’

On Thursday, Alvarez also challenged rookie members of the House of Representatives to work hard and help him restore the people’s faith in Congress by taking their cue from President Duterte’s 91 percent trust rating.

Based on the latest survey of Pulse Asia, 91 percent of Filipinos said they have “big trust” in the President.

“You should attend sessions and committee hearings religiously. Let us not waste our time doing other things. We have to keep up with the trust rating of our President, which is at a record high,” Alvarez told the neophyte legislators, numbering over a hundred, at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong City.

“You can learn a lot from these, and these are also part of our mandate, and of course our duty to our constituents,” he added.

The first-time congressmen – including actress Vilma Santos who represents Batangas, Ruel Pacquiao of Sarangani and transgender Geraldine Roman of Bataan – got the same message from San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora.

Zamora will head the 12-man House contingent in the bicameral Commission on Appointments while Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas will be designated as the House majority leader in the incoming 17th Congress on Monday. – With Delon Porcalla