Atty Arthur Tugade, one of the first government appointees of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, has been finally confirmed as secretary of the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
Tugade’s appointment was approved by the Committee on Appointment, composed of members of both chambers of Congress, on December 13 after being one of the appointees to fail to secure an appointment before Congress went on a Halloween break.
In a statement, DOTr said the transport chief vows to continue addressing the many difficult concerns affecting the transportation sector.
The department supervises 19 attached agencies including ports and maritime authorities, airport and airline authorities, and land transportation agencies.
DOTr listed some of the department’s accomplishments during Tugade’s five months in office. These include the following: improved the on-time arrivals of flights from 41% to 71%; extended the validity of drivers’ licenses from three years to five years; and fixed the Instrument Landing System (ILS) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport runway 2/4 for better precision landing and fewer diverted flights. Under his watch, too, 115 officials and personnel have resigned, retired, been dismissed or relieved, or are undergoing investigation due to corruption-related allegations.
During the period, the processing time of agencies handling the application for driver’s license was cut from five hours to three hours; franchise verification from three days to two hours; issuance of a seafarer’s book from eight hours to four hours; and release of the Philippine Ports Authority permit to operate ancillary service from one week to half a day.
The department also opened up government properties such as Camp Aguinaldo and Veterans Memorial Medical Center to motorists to help decongest traffic on major roads, and continues to enhance and extend the operations of the Pasig River Ferry by providing a free shuttle service until January 2017. It also expanded the premium point-to-point bus service with double-decker buses and deployed more premium airport shuttle buses.
Additionally, DOTr initiated dialogues with Metro Manila mayors and traffic managers from various local government units and agreed to do the following: integrate a single enforcement system under one chain of command; enforce an extended number coding hours and no window hours on all radial and circumferential roads in Metro Manila; develop uniform traffic fines and penalties; put local traffic enforcers under a single traffic authority for synchronized traffic management; conduct continuous trainings for traffic enforcers; and review existing PUV franchises.
DOTr likewise initiated dialogues with mall operators and came to these agreements: impose a moratorium on mall-wide sales during weekdays; observe a mall delivery schedule of 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.; and require mall operators to have later mall operating hours of 11:00 a.m. to 11 p.m. during the holidays; and require mall operators to submit traffic management plans two weeks before holding sales.
At the same time, the department enforced stricter traffic laws along national roads and Mabuhay Lanes.
Tugade, who was a businessman before he was appointed as president of the Clark Development Corp, resigned from CDC early this year to support Duterte’s election campaign.
