Poe questions mayors’ eagerness to fix traffic problem

Sen. Grace Poe

Sen. Grace Poe on Thursday scored the absence of several mayors in the last public hearing on the proposed emergency powers to solve the traffic crisis, saying it showed whether or not the congestion problem was their priority.

The Senate committee on public services, which Poe chairs, had wanted to undertake comprehensive consultations with local chief executives on the proposal to place traffic enforcement under the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) authority.

READ: Poe’s panel holds third hearing on emergency powers

Currently, each LGU exercises its own traffic enforcement authority, while the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority also has an overlapping mandate.

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade earlier said centralizing traffic enforcement would allow a seamless implementation of traffic rules from major roads to secondary thoroughfares.

“We saw that different towns and cities have this problem. It’s sad that other mayors did not attend, so you’d really see if traffic is their priority or not,” Poe told reporters.

“We are thankful to those who came. But that’s wrong, those who did not show up. This was their chance to tell Secretary Tugade the problems they might encounter if there will be a central traffic authority,” she said.

Poe’s committee invited a total of 14 mayors from Metro Manila and other key cities to yesterday’s proceedings. Only Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista and Calamba City Mayor Justin Chipeco attended.

READ: Mayors invited at Senate hearing on emergency powers vs traffic

Seven others—the cities of Manila, Taguig, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Pasig, Pasay, and Davao—sent representatives to yesterday’s three-hour proceedings.

The mayors of Caloocan, Makati, Muntinlupa, Cagayan de Oro and Cebu did not show up nor did they send any representative.

Poe said her committee would endeavor to still get inputs from the concerned local governments on the centralized authority proposal.

“We will probably go above and beyond what we need to do and ask each of their offices to submit position papers that we can submit to the DOTr. This means we would ask mayor who did not attend or did not even send a representative to give their suggestions to DOTr because we are doing this for the people,” Poe said.

The committee wrapped up public hearings on the emergency powers bill on Thursday and is expected to finalize the committee report for submission to the plenary by November following technical working group meets. Poe hopes the measure would be passed by the chamber before the Christmas break. RC/rga