CHAOS on Metro Manila streets INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
A SUPERBODY under the direct supervision of President Duterte is one of the responses of his administration to the road and air traffic congestion in Metro Manila and Cebu province that it says has become a “national emergency.”
The centralized traffic authority is being proposed by congressional leaders in House Bill No. 3, the proposed “Traffic Crisis Act,” which seeks to grant emergency powers to Mr. Duterte for two years.
Under the bill, the President is to be vested with emergency powers to reorganize, merge or abolish the Department of Transportation, Land Transportation Office, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, Metro Manila Development Authority, Toll Regulatory Board, Civil Aviation Board and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
The bill seeks to grant the President emergency powers to do away with the mandatory bidding on procurement of transportation equipment and take over errant transport franchises to solve the traffic mess on roads and airports in Metro Manila and Cebu.
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said, in his introductory note in HB 3, that the “massive and horrendous” traffic congestion in land and air brought about by the rapid increase in the number of vehicles on the road and the surge in domestic and international flights “has assumed the nature and magnitude of a national emergency.”
A study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) placed the economic losses from traffic congestion in Metro Manila at P2.4 billion a day in 2014.
Jica said the losses would increase to P6 billion a day by 2030 without intervention.
Negotiated contracts
“[T]he President, whenever it is advantageous to the government, may enter into negotiated contracts for the construction, repair, rehabilitation, improvement or maintenance of roads, bridges, railways, toll roads, expressways, skyways, airport runways and procurement of coaches,” the bill said.
As a fail-safe measure, Alvarez said his bill proposed the publication of projects and their budget estimates 30 days after the law had taken effect.
The contract shall be awarded only to contractors with proven competence in similar projects, with competent key personnel and sufficient reliable equipment, and with sound financial capacity.
The Speaker said the negotiated contracts would still be subject to existing government audit rules.
Prone to abuse
But Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat warned that such negotiated contracts would be prone to abuse even if Mr. Duterte himself swore in his State of the Nation Address that his administration would be a clean one.
“Negotiations are conducive to corruption. Do we just take the word of the head that all these contracts will be aboveboard? What about the official under him? How will we know the deals are the best for the government?” Baguilat asked.
Baguilat said that Congress had granted then President Benigno Aquino III emergency powers but there were no negotiated contracts made.
“We have to assess whether emergency powers are really needed and if this is really the solution we need,” the lawmaker said.
In his opening speech on July 25, Alvarez said there was a need to revise the Government Procurement Act because this one-size-fits-all law “discomfited” both the government and private sector.
“We should put in enough flexibility to address all foreseeable possibilities that may arise in the course of government procurement,” said Alvarez.
Takeover of franchise
Aside from negotiated bidding, Alvarez proposed that the President be empowered to temporarily take over or direct the operation of any transportation franchise found to have violated the national policy on addressing the land and air traffic crisis.
Other steps proposed by House leaders are the following:
Transfer transport terminals to ease choke points in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu.
Create alternative runways and parallel airports.
Relocate public markets on busy highways.
Ban “old, decrepit and ecologically adverse vehicles” on the road.
Adjust working hours of private and government hours to address traffic congestion during rush hours.
Expropriate private property with just compensation.
Deputize nongovernment organizations and local government units to carry out stricter monitoring of the President’s orders.
Alvarez expected the emergency powers bill and his other priority measures to be approved in the House of Representatives with a supermajority behind him.
Aside from Alvarez, other authors of the emergency powers bill were Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, Deputy Speaker Raneo Abu, Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya, Rizal Rep. Michael John Duavit, Pangasinan Rep. Charlie Cojuangco, Masbate Rep. Elisa Kho, Cebu Rep. Benhur Salimbangon, Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles and Ako Bicol Rep. Rodel Batocabe.