The legislation creating the Philippine Transportation Safety Board is nearing enactment after hurdling the House Appropriation Committee on Wednesday, 18 November 2020. The bill was previously approved jointly by the Transportation and Government Reorganization Committees. The Senate has earlier approved its version on the third and final reading.
The PTSB shall be a non-regulatory and autonomous agency attached to and under the general supervision of the Office of the President. It shall be the primary agency responsible for the conduct of impartial investigation on transportation-related accidents and incidents. The main
objectives of the PTSB are (a) to improve transportation safety measures that will help in the prevention of transportation accidents and mitigation of dangers to human lives and property, and (b) to ensure the implementation of transportation safety standards.
Before House Appropriation Committee approval, the Export Development Council, through its Networking Committee on Transport and Logistics(EDC-NCTL) – the committee mandated by the Export Development Act of 1994 to make possible the actualization of the “goal and objective” of the “National Government to provide a macroeconomic policy framework that will support export development” in different areas including transportation, has been advocating for the approval of the bill.
According to EDC-NCTL Chair Dr. Enrico Basilio, the approval of the bill by the present House leadership will be a key institutional reform in the transportation sector. The creation of the PTSB will enhance the standards of transportation safety measures, prevent transportation accidents in the future, and mitigate dangers to human lives and property.
The EDC-NCTL is hopeful that the PTSB can finally be enacted in the 18th Congress.
The bill creating the Philippine Transportation Safety Board was sponsored by Transportation Committee Chair Edgar Mary Sarmiento and Government Reorganization Committee Chair Marvey Vittorio Marino, Jr. The authors of the bill are: Rep. Edgar Mary Sarmiento (Samar 1st Dt.), Ron Salo, Alfred Vargas, Xavier Jesus Romualdo, Rozzano Rufino Biazon, Angelo Marcos Barba, Ramon ‘Mon-Mon’ Guico III, Ria Christina Fariñas, and Rufus Rodriguez.-CSR