INDEPENDENT presidential candidate Senator Grace Poe on Wednesday warned the Aquino administration against quick fixes, last-minute remedies or “band-aid solutions” to brag about its accomplishments before its term ends on June 30 next year.
“Rushing things can ruin things, and I’m afraid this is what’s happening now,” said Poe, the frontrunner in all presidential surveys.
She made her statement even as Senator Francis Escudero blasted Liberal Party presidential candidate Manuel Roxas II for his “anti-business” and “anti-poor” proposal when he suggested canceling all bus franchises to solve the traffic woes in Metro Manila.
He said Roxas’ “knee-jerk” solution would have a negative effect on the riding public who depends on buses in the absence of an efficient rail transport system.
“That proposal is detrimental to the welfare of the riding public,” Escudero said.
“He should also take into consideration the welfare of the people who are dependent on the bus industry for their livelihood.”
Poe made her warning amid the administration’s frenzied efforts to complete or repair infrastructure projects and fulfill unfinished commitments.
She cited the “seemingly endless road repairs these past weeks that have inconvenienced the public so much that we have started to be swallowed up into a way of life forever marred by traffic.”
“A legacy should have a lasting positive effect rather than further embroiling society in problems once this administration leaves office,” Poe said.
She also cited the spate of infrastructure projects that were started too late but were now being rushed like the Skyway extension and the flyover from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport complex to Diosdado Macapagal Avenue in the reclamation area in Pasay City.
Poe also cited the victims of Super Typhoon “Yolanda.”
“It has been two years since the calamity and yet there is still so much to be accomplished, so many still to be helped,” she said.
For the requirements of permanent shelters alone, the government hardly made a dent in alleviating the plight of more than 200,000 families who were displaced by the typhoon.
“From the government’s own admission, it was only able to provide permanent housing for 298 families in the last two years,” Poe said.
“How can you make up for the remainder of the total of 205,198 families who were rendered homeless by Yolanda in the next eight months?”
Poe said the government could resort to “band-aid solutions and haphazardly built houses that may not be able to withstand the next typhoon that comes along.”
“And by this time next year, we might end up commemorating the Yolanda tragedy with nothing to show and the victims still crying out for help,” she said.