Poe, chairperson of the Senate public services committee, led the conduct of the first public hearing on the proposed measure that will grant the special powers to the President.
“In capsule form—extraordinary problems require extraordinary powers to solve. The rule on such request for great powers has always been: The President proposes. Congress disposes,” she said in her opening statement.
Poe assured the public that every detail of the special powers will be looked into by the Senate.
“We will soon wade into the details of the bills, and carefully study its provisions, with no other motive but to improve it,” she added.
Poe, who ran but lost in the last presidential elections, included in her campaign platform the need to address traffic woes caused by the ill-maintained LRT and MRT.
“We must be open to innovative solutions and be ready to think out of the box. But though we are open to innovation, we must also be responsible with our actions,” Poe said.
Poe noted that giving the president emergency powers raises concerns on possible abuses about giving the concentration of powers in one person.
“There are fears that if we grant emergency powers for this issue, then we open the floodgates to granting emergency powers for other so-called ‘crisis’ or ’emergencies’,” the senator added.
Poe said she agrees that the government needs to address the transport problem, which translate to billions of economic loses in Metro Manila alone.
