Poe: If emergency power will fix traffic woes, why was it not certified as urgent?

MANILA, Philippines — Why was the emergency power not certified as urgent if they felt that this is really the solution to the traffic problem?

Senator Grace Poe said this Thursday amid the continuing push for the granting of the President’s special emergency powers to address the crippling traffic and transport problems in Metro Manila.

“I don’t understand why this was not certified as urgent if they felt that this is really the solution to the traffic problem,” Poe said in an interview over ANC’s Headstart.

Poe noted that all the bills that Duterte certified as urgent were “passed without any glitches” including several other controversial bills.

“Yes the President mentioned it in his Sona (State of the Nation Address) but I would like to be clear. It is the power of the President to certify a bill as urgent. And everything that was certified by the president passed without any glitches,” Poe said.

“He holds the majority in both the Congress and the Senate. If it was certified as urgent—it is less controversial than martial law extension, than the BBL (Bangsamoro Basic Law), than the Rice Tarrification, than TRAIN (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion). All of those bills passed,” she added.

Further, Poe also noted that the administration has the majority both in House of Representatives and the Senate.

During the oath-taking of the League of Vice Governors of the Philippines in Malacañang, Duterte chided Poe for supposedly blocking his emergency powers to ease traffic congestion in Metro Manila.

The President said the traffic situation in Metro Manila will be the lawmaker’s “legacy.”

“Pero ‘yang Edsa, hinayaan ko talaga. There was this one lady senator who said na: ‘No, no, ma-corrupt ‘yan.’ Hindi pa nga nag-umpisa ng project, nagsasalita na,” the President said during the oath-taking of the League of Vice Governors of the Philippines in Malacañang.

“Sinadya ko talaga ‘yan. Pagdating ng panahon p***** i**, meron na ngang solution eh sabihin niyo ‘corruption’ … Yan ang legacy niya. Make it a legacy ng pagka-politiko. It’s not mine,” he added. /muf