Trillanes calls for Tugade’s resignation over traffic mess

Senator Antonio Trillanes sees no reason why Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade should stay longer in his post given his failure to solve the traffic mess in the country.

On Wednesday, Trillanes joined calls for Tugade’s resignation following the latest incident at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport where a Xiamen aircraft skidded off its main runway.

“Sa akin nga si Mr. Duterte dapat nang umalis sa pwesto, lalo na ito. Ano bang output? Up to this time wala akong nakikitang magandang output dito sa departamento ni Mr. Tugade,” the senator said in an interview at the Senate.

(For me, Mr. Duterte should leave his post; the more Tugade should too. What is his output? Up to this time, I can’t see any good output in Mr. Tugade’s department.)

“Binigyan natin sila ng enough space, sabi nila yung trapik bigyan daw sila ng dalawang taon kasi hindi naman daw bigla-bigla yan. O ngayon, lagpas na tayo ng dalawang taon…” he said.

(We have given him enough space, they said to give them two years to solve the traffic problem because it can’t be fixed immediately. Now, two years have already passed.)

The senator said Tugade has already come up with various proposals to ease the traffic situation but the problem persists until now.

“Kaya sa akin dapat nga magresign na silang lahat e isama na nila ang amo nila. Ang gulo-gulo na ng bansa e,” Trillanes added.

(I think they should all resign, together with their boss. The country is in disarray.)

His resignation call was prompted by reporters’ questions about the latest airport mess that affected thousands of passengers.

The senator believes that transport authorities should have already been prepared and equipped since it was not the first time that a plane veered off the runway.

“Dapat by this time meron na tayong gamit na makaka-address ng mga ganyang aksidente or insidente. Dapat dalawang oras pa lang tanggal na ‘yan,” he said, referring to the Xiamen plane that was stuck on the runway.

(By this time, we should have had equipment to address this kind of accident or incident. It should have taken them two hours to extract the plane.)

Trillanes said those were just among the questions that authorities should answer when they face a Senate probe next week.

Senator Grace Poe, as chair of the Senate committee on public services, is set to conduct next week a “full-blown” probe on the incident. /je

READ: Poe seeks ‘full-blown’ probe on Naia runway incident