House cool to emergency powers for air traffic congestion

The House of Representatives has refuted the claim of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) that traffic congestion is not limited to land but bedevils air transportation as well in light of reports of perennial flight delays and airport diversions.

The committee on transportation led by Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento held 10 hearings and consultations with DOTr officials in relation to the emergency powers they want given to President Duterte.

“The traffic crisis is concentrated in metropolitan areas only, particularly in Metro Manila and nearby Metro Cebu and Davao City; and the crisis is limited to land transportation,” a statement from the House leadership stated.

The DOTr under Secretary Arthur Tugade has proposed a Traffic Crisis Bill that seeks to grant emergency powers to address the traffic crisis in the country, which the department earlier claimed included air traffic congestion through lack of runways or airport landing equipment.

Other findings were: the “need to harmonize various traffic laws and traffic regulatory powers; inter- agency cooperation is a must; driver competence and vehicle roadworthiness are vital; many are at risk of being displaced” as government tries to resolve the problem.

The “mass transport system should be improved all over the country, and not just where the crisis exists; and immediate solutions may be implemented at once even in the absence of a Traffic Crisis Act or any emergency powers.”

Sarmiento said these findings are the reasons the House committee wanted to limit the scope of the bill to particular areas mentioned and to cover only land transportation.

Sarmiento also scored the DOTr for failing to present concrete plans and offering instead “palliative measures” under the vast powers it is seeking from Congress.

He lamented his committee had been the DOTr’s “enabler, even to the point of spoonfeeding” the agency which submitted a wish list of projects that lawmakers described as flawed, having included proposals that have nothing to do with resolving traffic.

“As it stands, we have not seen concrete plans that will immediately solve the traffic crisis,” Sarmiento said.

He added DOTr cannot even handle its normal mandate.