AN umbrella network of road users has urged the Commission on Appointments (CA) to junk the ad interim appointment of Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade.
In separate letters dated October 19 to 1-Cebu Rep. Benhur Salimbangon of Cebu, chairman of the CA’s Committee on Transportation and Communications, and to CA Secretary Hector Villacorta, the Road Users Protection Advocates (Rupa) said the commission must step in and block Tugade’s questionable appointment.
“We would like, therefore, to implore that you apply the mandate of your honorable office that it would ‘ensure that the President must exercise the power to appoint wisely, appointing only those who are fit and qualified,” Rupa Chairman Ray Junia said in his letter.
“We believe that the President failed to appoint wisely when he named Secretary Tugade to the post, because we are convinced the appointee is not fit or qualified,” he added.
Junia recalled how Tugade boasted that he will solve the traffic crisis within 100 days after his assumption. Tugade even dared President Duterte on national television to fire him if he could not deliver on his promise.
“As we all know, no significant change has happened, except that traffic has turned from worse to worst since [Tugade] assumed his post, and we are now over the 100-day self-imposed deadline as of this writing,” Junia said.
Rupa also scored Tugade for coming out with “incredible and fantastic solutions that elicited laughter and sneer from the public and [transportation] experts,” in a bid to wiggle out of his own 100-day ultimatum.
“This is making us think twice about the real state of his mental health,” Junia said.
“Among these incredulous solutions is his reported plan to install cable cars over the length of Laguna de Bay that he said would connect the southern province of Laguna to Metro Manila, an idea he copied from the experience of La Paz, Bolivia. This idea sent experts laughing since, aside from being next to improbable, the project would be costly and would take many years to construct,” he added.
Junia also criticized Tugade for proposing to transform the Metro Rail Transit Line 2 into a bus rapid transit (BRT), which he described as an idea “that, common sense dictates, is suspect at best.”
Even Sen. Grace Poe, who heads the Senate Committee on Public Services, raised concerns on the planned BRT on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, saying narrow lanes, such as the intersection of Shaw Boulevard, might not be able to handle BRT well, as there will only be a single lane left for private vehicles.
“Also, according to some of our resource persons from the transport sector, the world trend is to move out of the rubber-based road surface vehicles, and yet, we are pursuing this by constructing BRT lines. How exactly can this help in easing traffic? Why not build more railroads and procure more trains?” Poe said.
Junia also questioned Tugade’s plan to transfer the DOTr head office in Pampanga, “apparently to make life easier for him since he still feels he is the anointed savior of the nearby Clark Development Corp.”
3 comments
please some one include “Thomas Orbos” be removed from the MMDA….
He might totally ban all private vehicles from leaving the parking lot
appoint someone who commutes across manila everyday to work.
solution to traffic must employ some scientific principles. suggestions like:
1. less traffic means predictable faster, shorter, safer travel from point A to point B. this must be portrayed in standard numerical values.
2. traffic is about no. of people / goods transferred per unit time / distance, and not simply about no. of vehicles.
3. to lessen traffic, we need more roads, more transportation options, lesser vehicles, without necessarily decreasing the growing number of people traveling.
4. even without violations, traffic congestion exists.
5. drop off/pick-up points of commuters must be strategic. busier points should have a corresponding coping mechanism. (example, the Ayala bus stop along EDSA is very inefficient. there should be a bus station not just a long strip of bus stop)
6. which reminds me… more bus stations, not just bus stops in major drop-off/pick-up points. not only for bus but for taxis as well.
7. you can’t just stop and pick-up / drop-off anywhere along major roads. EDSA and other identified major roads should be treated like a low-speed highway.
8. to commute is a right; to travel privately in comfort is a luxury. it brings along with it additional traffic burden that commuters should not be the ones shouldering. a certain corresponding expectation from the private sector is warranted, probably in the form of tax or public service..