The transportation department held a press con this afternoon to explain that the train crash this week was due to “human error”.
Legally, however, this does not absolve the MRT corporation, the transportation department, and its officials from responsibility…. here are the pertinent laws — this podcast plays automatically … unless the audio is derailed, jumps off the tracks, flies off, smashes against cement… crumples into a heap.
(Music, a few seconds’ snippet, from a song written by Peter Tosh, performed by Bob Marley, photo from the DOTC website on an MRT contract-signing, both used here non-commercially for academic purposes)
breaking news. first posted here at 11:15 am Nov. 15, updated at 11:33: Aksyon 5 news director DJ Sta. Ana broke the story live from Leyte that Energy Secretary Petilla announced that the government has taken over two gas stations in the province for an orderly and rational distribution of fuel. Petilla said that soldiers have been deployed to guard the gas stations to avoid chaos and ensure that fuel will be distributed equitably.
Good work. Decisive. While the President has not gotten any emergency powers from Congress
and some of the senators and congressmen are happily vacationing, someone in government exercised a semblance of “emergency powers” (or emergency powers in its technical, legal sense, the way that it is defined in constitutional law, see yesterday’s blog post below). Don’t use the word “take-over” na lang muna , the President should ask for emergency powers. Lawyers will find a legal provision defending your action under the Civil Code or Administrative Code — we can find a provision. (i never thought lawyers would have a role to play in an apocalyptic event, one would think we’re useless and only doctors, nurses, engineers, journalists, etc. could help). This act of guarding the gas stations and volunteering to distribute the gas using government personnel in an emergency is defensible. In the meantime … Energy Secretary Petilla can say: to save lives by preventing chaos and violence, the government bought on credit the energy supply of two gas stations and government offered to distribute the fuel using government personnel, and the owners agreed.
