Govt continues to work to address traffic woes,
says Palace
Malacanang said the government continues to
address the traffic congestion problem in the midst of an economic report
saying the country has been losing huge amount of potential income due to the
traffic menace.
NEDA Director General Arsenio Balisacan said the
Philippines is losing P2.4 billion a day in potential income as a result of
traffic congestion problem.
Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte
said in a radio interview Saturday over dzRB Radyo ng Bayan that among the
government’s major thrusts is to decongest Metro Manila and build
infrastructure that will ease traffic congestion.
The main focus according to Valte is easing
traffic flow in EDSA, being Metro Manila’s main thoroughfare.
Apart from the campaign against the colorum
buses, the government plans to move the terminals of provincial buses away from
EDSA, she said.
The government is building the North and South
terminal so that buses plying provincial routes do not have to take the EDSA
route. The administration is also building various infrastructure projects to
ease traffic flow in the metro, she said.
The President has instructed agencies to find
alternative roads that could be used once the EDSA rehabilitation starts.
In addition to the usual road maintenance, the
public works and highways department is also doing flood mitigation plans for
Metro Manila. The government targets to pave all national roads by 2015-2016,
Valte said.
MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino gave an update
on the construction of the South terminal, Valte said. The MMDA has been
carrying out a scheme that controls the buses along EDSA to avoid traffic jams.
Reacting to a recent campaign in the City of
Manila targeting street vendors and illegal parking, Valte said traffic
enforcement doesn’t solely rely on the hands of the MMDA and local government
units must also act.
Valte said going after vendors and people
illegally parking their vehicles are being discussed by the Metro Manila
Council. PND (as)
Palace: There’s enough money to fund P2.3
trillion 2014 budget
The Palace is confident that it could fund the
P2.3 trillion budget proposed by the President for 2014 because the executive
department has studied it thoroughly, a Palace official said.
President Aquino will seek a P2.3-trillion
national budget for next year after he delivers his fourth State of the Nation
Address on July 22.
The budget department confirmed this week that
the P2.268 trillion is the spending level that the President would ask the
Senate and the House of Representatives to appropriate.
“Confident tayo na mapopondohan natin iyan, and
as is with every budget that we have presented to Congress and that has been
approved by Congress, ito ay matagal na pinag-aralan,” Deputy Presidential
spokesperson Abigail Valte said in a radio interview over dzRB Radyo ng Bayan
on Saturday.
“What we always look out for would be ways to
tighten spending and to make sure that the money that we allot for a particular
project actually goes to that project,” she said adding Budget Secretary
Florencio Abad will present the budget to the President on Monday.
The planned budget is 13.1 percent or about P262
billion higher than this year’s P2.006-trillion budget.
The department said that the additional funds
would go to increased investments in infrastructure, in governance and
anti-corruption, in building human capabilities especially of the poor, through
quality education, public healthcare and housing, and in climate change
adaptation measures.
All these fundamental requirements are vital for
the country’s competitiveness and development, it said. PND (as)
Palace: Cha-Cha will remain at the back burner
Changing the country’s Constitution will not
have the President’s support until somebody could convince him on the pressing
need to amend it at this time, a Palace official said on Saturday.
In a radio interview over dzRB Radyo ng Bayan,
Deputy Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte was asked by reporters on what
could possibly convince the President to agree to Charter Change.
“This was the question that the President has
always asked: What would be the detriment to the country if we do not move for
Cha-Cha now, at this time? Ano ‘yung pressing need and until this day, wala
pang nakasasagot kung ano nga 'yun to the President,” Valte said.
The President was asking if there is a clear and
present danger for the nation if it does not amend the Charter now, she said.
Asked if the President finds the issue of
changing the Constitution divisive, Valte said the President thinks otherwise.
“It’s not really that it’s divisive, it’s more
of justifying going through that process,” she said.
The Palace official argued that Charter Change
is not necessary because the country has managed to get along with many
challenges without amending the Charter.
“And kung economic progress ang pag-uusapan
natin, the numbers are there. We can use the experience of other countries, by
way of economic growth, at meron namang mga bansang hindi hinahayaan ang
foreign ownership of their land na nagkakaroon ng economic progress, Valte noted.
PND (as)
