Not Grace! Finally, Sen. Francis Tolentino files bill seeking Emergency Powers to solve PH traffic problems

Finally! The emergency power bill for President Duterte to address traffic woes has been filed by Senator  Francis Tolentino, and not the original Senator who made the proposal, Senator Grace Poe.

In February 2018, Poe said "there is a need to grant extraordinary powers because current laws do not adequately provide for the means to expeditiously and effectively solve this traffic and congestion crisis."

She also said then that a change in the president's position on the grant of emergency powers has delayed passage of the bill.


Senatorial candidate and former Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chief Francis Tolentino took a swipe at Senate Public Services committee chair Grace Poe for supposedly "sitting on" the proposal to grant emergency powers to President Rodrigo Duterte.

"Some persons equated emergency powers with bidding procedures, procurement, abuse of power. Baka mali lang 'yung intindi nila sa nomenclature [Maybe they misinterpreted the nomenclature.] It's not that," he said.

In his previous speeches, Duterte said he abandoned his plan to ask Congress to allot funds for traffic-related projects because a female senator had claimed that the money was prone to corruption.


"You know, when I started to work as President, we asked for money,  but I didn’t say that I was asking for emergency powers. It was the suggestion of my staff," the president said during a campaign rally in Davao City last Saturday.

"In Congress, Grace Poe made a comment. She said: 'That amount of money is just too big. We might lose all that money to corruption.' So when I heard it — we don’t know each other that well — I told the Congress: 'Never mind. I will not ask for money anymore, forget it,'" he added.

Duterte said Poe, who is seeking a second term, had been suspicious that the money for traffic-related projects could be lost to corruption.


The Transportation department previously asked Congress to grant the Duterte administration emergency powers for three years to solve the country's traffic woes.

Photo Source via Dharel Placido, ABS-CBN News

The special power would have allowed the government to fast-track the procurement process and undertake projects through direct contracting, repeat order and direct negotiation.

Duterte: I looked for help elsewhere

"I looked for help elsewhere. So I went to China. That’s why the situation has remained as it is now. I promised that I will try to solve the problem in EDSA but I would need money for it. Nothing is free in this world," Duterte said.

"It is the first time that I named Grace. This is the very first time, in this campaign. She was the one who said it. It was full of malice. It’s as if she thinks she’s the only moral person in this world. That’s the problem with them," he added.

In May 2017, Duterte said that he will not insist on emergency powers and said of Congress that "if they are fearful of corruption there because there is no bidding, then they have every right to doubt.”


Duterte said he sees no problem if Poe wins in the 2019 midterm polls. He, however, said he has "more to say" about the senator.

"I don’t have a problem but that’s the one thing that I can say about her for now. I have more to say, but I’ll save that for some other time. That’s one of my failures," he added.

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