Fourteen Senators agreed to give President Rodrigo Duterte an emergency powers to fix the worsening land traffic in the Philippines, especially in Metro Manila.
Senator Grace Poe, who led the Senate Public Services Committee said in her speech that the traffic in the Philippines is a “virus engulfing the nation”
She also said that the annual economic cost of traffic in Metro Manila to be P876-B.
Poe said that the committee decided to grant the President emergency powers because P3-B was wasted a day due to traffic.
“Congress needs to declare a national emergency with regard to traffic congestion, because traffic from highly urbanized areas is now spilling over to nearby localities and causing businesses and people to lose money and opportunities,” she said.
This are the fourteen Senators who granted Emergency Powers to President Duterte.
The 14 are the following Senators:
- Grace Poe
- Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV
- Antonio Trillanes IV
- Vicente “Tito” Sotto III
- Loren Legarda
- Franklin Drilon
- Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan
- Panfilo Lacson
- Juan Miguel Zubiri
- Richard Gordon
- Joel Villanueva
- Nancy Binay
- Sherwin Gatchalian
- Gregorio Honasan
The Emergency Powers granted to President Duterte would only affect until 2019.
The Duterte administration eyed emergency powers to fix the worsening traffic in the Philippines.
“The worsening traffic situation should be legitimately addressed if Congress could accord emergency powers to me. Kung gusto niyo nang madalian, isagad na. Nasa inyo yan,” Duterte said during his first State of the Nation Address.
