‘Corruption real cause of traffic gridlocks’
LAWMAKERS should not allow themselves to be stampeded into approving House Bill (HB) 4334 or the - ments of the government to address the
“Let’s go slow on this bill’s approval. This is not the solution. This would only aggravate the situation since it does not address the real cause of the traf other urban cities [and the real cause is] corruption,” Lito Atienza, Buhay party-list representative and senior deputy minority leader, said
Giving emergency powers that would suspend laws on bidding and procurement, he warned, might only
way and allowing corrupt interests to
He cited as an example the continued proliferation of illegal bus and jeep terminals.
“On several major intersections, motorists wait for 5 to 10 minutes while they give priority to buses and jeepneys coming from the perpendicular roads.
[Why, are they bribed by the bus and jeepney drivers]? … why lights systems that utilize actual road
He pointed out that aside from cor is the apparent refusal of authorities to clear alternate routes to alleviate congestion on major roads.
Secondary roads that can serve as alternate routes, Atienza said, are houses in the middle of the streets.
Aside from the continued presence of so many obstructions on these alternate routes, barangay [villages] are being allowed to put up gates within their communities, closing roads that should be open 24 hours a day to serve as alternate routes, he added.
“Our main mass transport system that serves Metro Manilans, the Metro Rail Transit 3 [MRT 3], has badly deteriorated and continues to bog down everyday, sometimes leaving thousands of commuters with only instead of the needed 15 to 17. How can we expect commuters and motor train authorities have been arrested or punished]. Why has no one been punished for the purchase of 48 trains the maintenance contractor nor the this anomalous transaction have been punished. They should be languishing in jail by now. The MRT 3 is the only fast and usable mass transport system we have, it should have been protected from corruption,” Atienza said.
powers, the government should do its job and exhaust all means to address to-goodness enforcement of existing laws is what’s needed. But as long as corruption exists, there will be no solution to this problem. We reiterate our advice to our colleagues, HB 4334 is not the solution. This would only aggravate the problem. President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly said, and he is correct in saying that corruption remains one of the biggest problems of the nation,” he added.