{"id":230731,"date":"2019-09-12T18:33:12","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T22:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=230731"},"modified":"2019-09-12T18:33:12","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T22:33:12","slug":"dotr-to-poe-traffic-not-part-of-our-mandate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/09\/12\/dotr-to-poe-traffic-not-part-of-our-mandate\/","title":{"rendered":"DOTr to Poe: Traffic not part of our mandate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FDOTrPH%2Fposts%2F1455949511210847&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"682\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<strong>MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0&#8212; The Department of Transportation (DOTr) on Thursday took exception to the remarks of Senator Grace Poe, stressing that addressing traffic woes is not part of its mandate.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement posted on its Facebook page addressed to Poe, the DOTr clarified that Secretary Arthur Tugade was designated as the country\u2019s traffic czar in a proposed bill in 2016 which did not push through.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Sana po malinaw. Hindi \u2018ho sa naghuhugas ng kamay. Nagsasabi lamang &#8216;ho ng totoo<\/em>\u00a0(We hope it\u2019s clear. We are not washing our hands off the issue. We\u2019re just telling the truth),\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n<p>Poe, in a television interview, said Tugade must be replaced because he is underperforming and is unable to solve traffic congestion problems.<\/p>\n<p>The department said Tugade was not one to rest on his laurels following the DOTr\u2019s completion of 64 airports, 220 commercial and social\/tourism port projects, and one land port under his leadership\u2014not including another 133 airport projects, 121 port projects, and six ongoing railway projects.<\/p>\n<p>It further said Tugade\u2019s push for 24\/7 construction and enforcement of partial operability timelines of these projects also served as proof of the transport chief\u2019s hard work and thrust for immediate relief of the country\u2019s transport woes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMadam Senator,<em>\u00a0hindi &#8216;ho ugali ni<\/em>\u00a0Secretary Tugade\u00a0<em>ang matulog sa pansitan. Kaya nga &#8216;ho nagpapatupad ang Kagawaran ng 24\/7 construction at nagpapairal ng<\/em>\u00a0partial operability timelines (Madame Senator, it is not a habit of Secretary Tugade to be lazy. That\u2019s why the department is enforcing 24\/7 construction and partial operability timelines),\u201d the DOTr said.<\/p>\n<p>The transport chief\u2019s visit to Maguindanao as part of the DOTr\u2019s Public Utility Vehicle (PUV) Modernization project in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) followed by a meeting with the BARMM\u2019s Ministry of Transportation and Communication in Cotabato was also mentioned as further testament to Tugade and the department\u2019s diligence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018<em>Yan po ang aming Kalihim. Trabaho, gawa at hindi puro salita<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s our Secretary. Work, action, and not all talk),\u201d the DOTr said.<\/p>\n<p>Sought for a comment,\u00a0Tugade said Poe should not be concerned with his position as DOTr chief as he serves at the pleasure of President Rodrigo Duterte and that he is &#8220;not subject to the whims, caprice and theatrics of misguided politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Sus, masyadong bilib sa sarili. Pati ba naman posisyon ko pinakikialaman niya<\/em>\u00a0(She thinks too much of herself. She even concerns herself with my position),&#8221;\u00a0Tugade added.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Tugade and other DOTr officials attended the hearing of the Senate committee on public services chaired by Poe on the proposed provincial bus ban on Edsa.<\/p>\n<p>The granting of emergency powers to fast-track relevant projects was also brought up but was disputed by Poe, saying lack of emergency powers should not be blamed for their failure to accomplish their tasks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA\u00a0&#8212; The Department of Transportation (DOTr) on Thursday took exception to the remarks of Senator Grace Poe, stressing that addressing &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":230732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-raymond-carl-dela-cruz","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230733,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230731\/revisions\/230733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}