Lawmakers push Bautista’s DOTR confirmation
THeproblem-riddentransportation sector, recently described as a “broken system,” is expected to have a veteran crisis manager overseeing it with the endorsement by key lawmakers of the confirmation of Secretary Jaime Bautista of the Department of Transportation (DOTR).
No less than Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri late Tuesday endorsed to the Commission on Appointments (CA) the plenary confirmation of Bautista, who had drawn admiration in his long stint as head of Philippine Airlines (PAL), drawing awards for the flag carrier amid a myriad of crises it underwent.
Presiding as concurrent chairman of the bicameral CA, Senate President Zubiri described Bautista as a “responsible andreputablefellow”who“doesnotneed to go through the learning curve.”
Bautista knows his stuff “even when he is sleeping,” added Zubiri. “He thinks about the transport problem in the country, and we need him now because of the traffic congestion because of the Christmas season. We need him to focus on his job.”
At the committee level hearing, Senator Cynthia Villar sought Bautista’s support for the establishment of three first border facilities in different areas of the country.
Villarstressedtheimportanceofthe 2023 national budget-funded facilities in Bulacan, Cebu and Davao City. As chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture,food,andagrarianreform,she notedthatfundingwasallocatedforthe project years ago but the Department of Agriculture failed to implement it due to lack of space in the Port of Manila.
Some agriculture stakeholders agreed to lend their land for the establishment of the first border facilities, according to Villar. “Our agriculture stakeholders are in earnest to build this because of what happened with the African swine fever and the avian flu. We don’t have first border facilities that’s why diseases easily enter the country to the detriment of the agricultural sector,” Villar said.
For his part, Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito asked the DOTR if it could finish the two big-ticket railways projects in Metro Manila on time. At the meeting of the Committee on Transportation of the CA on the ad interim appointment of Bautista as DOTR secretary, Ejercito said he is one of those who fought for the restoration of the DOTR’S budget allotted for the Metro Manila Subway Project and the Northsouth Commuter Railway project in the 2023 national budget.