Senate panel set to resume hearing on emergency powers

Senator Grace Poe makes a surprise visit at the Southwest Integrated Transport Terminal in Parañaque City ahead of the resumption of the Senate hearing on granting President Duterte emergency powers to address the country’s traffic problem. PHOTO FROM SEN. GRACE POE’S FACEBOOK PAGE

The Senate is set to resume today, August 25, 2016, deliberations on bills seeking emergency powers to President Rodrigo Duterte to address the traffic problem in Metro Manila and other urban areas in the country.

Some of the guests invited by the committee on public services headed by Senator Grace Poe include Department of Transportation (DOTr) Undersecretaries Noel Kintanar and Anne Lontoc; Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) officer in charge Thomas Orbos; and National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Assistant Director Kathlen Mangune.

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Others invited are members of the academe from the University of the Philippines (UP) National Center for Transportation Studies and School of Urban and Regional Planning and heads of transport sector groups.

The hearing has been set to start at 10 a.m.

In last week’s hearing, Poe expressed support for granting emergency powers to the President, saying “extraordinary problems require extraordinary solutions.”

However, she emphasized that any emergency power given to Duterte should be “clear, specific, and time-bound.”

READ: Duterte emergency power won’t come without conditions—Poe

Ahead of Thursday’s hearing, Poe went to the Southwest Integrated Transport Terminal in Parañaque City and inspected its facilities to see first-hand the plight of commuters.

The senator lamented the sorry state of the terminal, saying the government should tap public-private sector cooperation in improving its facilities.

“We are supposedly almost a successful economy. Globally, we’re trying to be competitive, we’re trying to gain our status in the ASEAN region, and this is the type of terminal we have?” Poe said in a media forum on Wednesday.

READ: Poe visits Parañaque bus terminal to ‘witness plight of commuters’

Poe earlier said that she favored emergency powers that would last three years.