LAWMAKERS urged President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday not to reappoint Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade after the powerful Commission on Appointments bypassed him last week for his failure to solve Metro Manila’s traffic woes within 100 days from assuming office.
Reps. Gary Alejano, Tobias Tiangco and Danilo Suarez said Tugade does not deserve a second chance after failing to at least ease the traffic congestion in Metro Manila.
“The fact that Tugade failed to at least ease the worsening traffic crisis in Manila as promised, it is but proper that he should not be confirmed,” Alejano said.
Tugade was deemed bypassed after the CA failed to confirm his ad interim appointment before Congress adjourned last week.
Alejano said Tugade sat on his job waiting for emergency powers to be granted him.
He said even without emergency powers Tugade could have accomplished something.
“My position is that [the Transport department] must exert all efforts within their power and within the established laws to solve the traffic problem,” Alejano said.
“However, if [the department] sees the need for emergency powers, it must be able to present its plans clearly: the specifics of what it will do and the timeline within which it will exercise this power.”
Tiangco said he was also opposed to Tugade’s reappointment.
“While it is the prerogative of the President to reappoint Tugade, Congress had already made its sentiment known through the CA,” he said.
Suarez had said Duterte should fire Tugade if he failed to address the worsening traffic situation by the end of the year.
“Let us give him another month. If people will still experience the traffic nightmare during the Christmas season, then the President should fire him already,” Suarez said.
Suarez backed Alejano’s position that Tugade does not need emergency powers to start resolving the traffic crisis.
Earlier, a network of road users urged the CA not to confirm Tugade.
In separate letters dated Oct. 19 to Cebu Rep. Benhur Salimbangon, the chairman of the CA’s Committee on Transportation and Communication, and to CA Secretary Hector Villacorta, the Road Users Protection Advocates said the commission must step in and block Tugade’s appointment.
Rupa also criticized Tugade for coming out with “incredible and fantastic solutions that elicited laughter and sneer from the public and [transportation] experts.”