Poe hopes Senate will pass Duterte crisis powers before October break

Senator Grace Poe. PHOTO FROM SEN. GRACE POE’S OFFICE

Despite her decision to defer the hearings on the proposed emergency powers for President Rodrigo Duterte, Senator Grace Poe remained hopeful that it would be passed in the Senate as early as October this year.

“My wish is hopefully we can have this before we go in our October break at least for the Senate…” she said in an interview with INQ&A over Radyo Inquirer 990 AM Tuesday night.

“At the latest perhaps before Christmas,” said Poe, who, as chair of the Senate committee on public services, is presiding over the hearings on the proposal to grant Duterte emergency powers to address the traffic problem.

But even without the emergency powers, Poe said, there were some suggestions that could still be implemented.

“This might be a little drastic but can schools actually end classes by December 12 so that the Christmas rush would not be too much on all of us?”

“I mean, why not, right? And then start in January, by that time we’re all done already with our own Christmas holiday obligations. So these are things that the (DOTr) can perhaps roll out as early as of now to address the problem in the coming holidays,” she said.

Poe’s committee was scheduled to hold its third hearing Tuesday but decided to defer it, pending the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) submission of the list of projects that will be implemented using the emergency powers for traffic.

READ: Poe puts emergency powers hearings on hold

“The DOTr has not submitted a list to us and so what are we working on, a blank sheet of paper? Are we supposed to be the experts also in the Senate to actually give them our suggestions and the solutions to traffic? No. We need to be able to listen to our resource persons and more importantly, we need to be able to listen to those at the helm of this, which is the DOTr,” she said.

“This is really a crisis but even in a crisis, even when we go to war, we should have a plan, we should have a battle plan. We can’t just give blanket authorization because eventually this will all fall on our shoulders.

Poe said the suspension of the proceeding was not meant to pressure the DOTr officials but to remind them that the Senate “is not just a place where you can have free publicity for anything.”

READ: Senate to DOTr: Projects first before Digong emergency powers

“There should really be some substance to what we talk about. You know, a lot of senators are also being scrutinized for the questions—if there’s really relevance or whatever but you can’t really have a relevant hearing unless the main substance of it, which is why we need emergency powers, is laid out.”

“Sabi ko naman (I said), we’re going to give them enough elbow room. You don’t need to have all of the specifics but at least tell us what your big ticket items are. Will you be building more bridges? Will you have more roads, where will they be? What the type of intermodal system will you have…? the senator added.

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