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| Senator Grace Poe and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte / file photo from Inquirer |
Manila, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte has slammed
reelectionist Senator Grace Poe for allegedly attributing malice to his plan to
ask funds from Congress to ease EDSA traffic situation, which has been
congested for so long now.
According to the Chief Executive, Poe had been suspicious
that the money for the project will be wasted to corruption.
"You know, when I started to work as President, we
asked for money, but I didn’t say that I was asking for emergency powers.
It was the suggestion of my staff," the president said during a campaign sortie
in Davao City last Saturday.
"In Congress, Grace Poe made a comment. She said: 'That
amount of money is just too big. We might lose all that money to corruption.'
So when I heard it — we don’t know each other that well — I told the
Congress: 'Never mind. I will not ask for money anymore, forget it,'"
he added.
Earlier, the President announced that he had to drop his
plan to pursue asking the Congress for funds for transportation and traffic
congestion related projects because of a female senator who said that it is
prone to corruption.
Poe is the public services Senate committee chair, which
also held hearings on proposals to grant the president special emergency powers.
Meanwhile, in earlier 2018, Poe said that there is a need to
grant extraordinary powers as the current law does sufficiently provide ways to
effectively address traffic congestion in the country.
The senator also said that the president’s mixed signals to lawmakers
delayed the passage of the bill.
"Though the president initially asked for emergency
powers, he said later on that he does not need it. This sent mixed signals to
members of the House and the Senate,” Poe said
Source: Philstar
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