Palace: Emergency powers limited to traffic problems

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.