Transportation Safety Bill Vetoed by Marcos, Foreign Chambers Express Dismay

President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. recently vetoed a bill creating a transportation safety board. This move disappointed two international organizations and foreign business chambers, noting that the passage of the bill would have tackled lapses and discontinuities in investigations of transport-related accidents. Seven members of the Joint Foreign Chambers in the Philippines (JFC), the Safe Travel Alliance (STA), and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) disclosed in a statement that the proposed Philippine Transportation Safety Board (PTSB) would have been charged with “impartial and science-based” investigations into transport-related accidents and incidents.

The statement emphasized that “As an independent and impartial transport safety body following the example of various countries, the PTSB would have addressed regulatory gaps in the transport safety bureaucracy, facilitated the enhancement of transportation safety measures and standards, and coordinated all the actions of relevant public and private entities toward the common goal of ensuring transport safety.”

The PTSB would have pursued improvements in transportation safety measures and standards under the vetoed measure. It also aimed to create implementing rules to avert accidents. Furthermore, the PTSB would have been a non-regulatory agency under the Office of the President. However, it would have the same functions as various agencies under the Department of Transportation (DOTr), Philippine National Police (PNP), and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), according to the President. This is what led to the measure being vetoed.

President Marcos conveyed in his veto message that the creation of the PTSB “is likely to create functional duplication, confusion as to authority, ineffectiveness, and deficiency in the performance of the responsibilities.” He added that “considering that one of the primary policies (of this administration)… is to enhance the government’s institutional capacity through optimal and efficient use of resources and strategic rationalization of the functions of governments, I am constrained to veto the bill.”

Marcos prodded the current Congress to constitute measures that will assess the functions and processes of the various agencies mentioned in his message “with the end view of strengthening the same and providing a holistic and well-coordinated approach in the promotion of transport safety.” In contrast, the business groups pointed out that different agencies lead and manage accident investigations, but are limited “to delve deeper and find forensic evidence on the real cause of the accidents or by witnesses of the accidents.”

“Because most of these agencies are also tasked to regulate and/or operate the sector, there is an inherent conflict of interest in the performance of their duties as an investigating body,” the group elaborated. The three organizations said that the bill creating the Board failed to pass Congress for over two decades, but it was only the previous Congress that approved the measure, later landing in Malacañang for the President’s signature. “The groups remain committed to pursuing enactment of the bill in the 19th Congress,” the three organizations emphasized.

Apart from IATA and STA, the statement was also signed by a number of JFC members. These include the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Philippines, Inc., Korean Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Inc., and the Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters, Inc.

Source: BusinessWorld