By Wilnard Bacelonia
MANILA – Senator Grace Poe on Friday renewed her call for the immediate passage of a bill creating the Philippine Transportation Safety Board (PTSB), an independent agency that would centralize and professionalize investigations into land, sea, air and rail accidents.
Senate Bill No. 1121 seeks to address the persistent rise in transport-related fatalities and injuries by establishing a dedicated body focused not only on investigating but also preventing accidents through policy reform, research, and safety oversight.
“Lives are lost and injuries are sustained daily by motorists for reasons that could have been prevented in the first place. This is simply unacceptable,” Poe said in a news release.
Citing Metropolitan Manila Development Authority data, Poe said there were 62,723 road crashes January to November 2024, with 332 deaths. Most involved four-wheel vehicles, motorcycles and trucks.
Thus, Poe emphasized that while multiple agencies oversee transport, none are solely devoted to safety, leaving a gap the PTSB aims to fill.
The PTSB shall be an independent and non-regulatory body attached to the Office of the President, with an initial budget of PHP50 million, part of which will be allocated for the Transportation Safety Fund to support accident investigations, research, and personnel training.
It would be composed of seven full-time members, each representing various transportation sectors — land, rail, air, and sea — as well as two members from the commuting public and road safety advocacy groups.
Among its primary duties are assessing the causes of accidents, maintaining nationwide data, proposing safety standards and submitting annual reports to the President and Congress.
“The aim is simple. Let’s stop treating these tragedies as isolated incidents and start learning from them so fewer Filipino families suffer the same fate,” Poe said. (PNA)
