Before adjourning for the Lenten and summer break, the House of Representatives has approved on second reading House Bill 7436 meant to abolish the Road Board due to grave allegations of misappropriation and graft and corruption of its multibillion-peso revenues.
The Road Board oversees the funds from the Motor Vehicle User’s Charge (MVUC) collections, which are used exclusively for road maintenance and improvement of road drainage, installation of traffic lights and road-safety devices and air-pollution control.
The Commission on Audit (COA) reported irregularities in the use of the MVUC funds amounting to P90.7 billion, including unauthorized, unnecessary and irregular expenses, excessive contract costs for projects, delayed and uncompleted projects and technical deficiencies and defects in projects that could jeopardize motorists and pedestrians.
“The abolition of the Road Board and the amendments to the MVUC law would ensure the prudent management and efficient utilization of the MVUC,” said Rep. Xavier Jesus D. Romualdo of the Lone District of Camiguin and chairman of the House Committee on Government Reorganization, who sponsored the measure.
The bill also seeks to amend Republic Act (RA) 8794 on how the MVUC funds are distributed and managed. Under the bill, the MVUC collections shall be used only for construction, upgrading, repair, and rehabilitation of roads, bridges and road drainage, pollution control, including the establishment and improvement of solid-waste management programs and facilities, and vehicle-pollution control.
The collections shall be apportioned and deposited in four special trust accounts in the National Treasury, to wit: 40 percent in the Special National Road Support Fund; 40 percent in the Special Local Road Support Fund, which shall both be managed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH); 10 percent in the Special Pollution Control Fund, which shall be managed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources; and 10 percent in the Special Vehicle Pollution Control Fund, which shall be managed by the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
“We remove an opaque and intricate layer of the bureaucracy and put the funds directly in the hands of the implementing agencies. We clear up who is responsible and accountable for the use of the funds, which would lead to proper and better use of the funds. We also ensure that projects funded out of the MVUC collections, particularly for construction and improvement of local roads, which is badly needed in the countryside, will be distributed equitably throughout the country,” Romualdo said.
The measure, as approved on second reading, provides that 80 percent of the Special Local Road Support Fund will be distributed among the DPWH District Engineering Offices, to be apportioned based on equal sharing, population and land area.
The House is expected to approve the measure on the third and final reading when it resumes session on May 15.
The question is: What happened to the huge funds of the Road Board lost to corruption and other scams and the officials involved in it?
Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez said earlier that there was a “pattern of anomalies” for the past decade where COA uncovered the illegal use of the Road Fund estimated to have amounted to a total of P90.7 billion from 2001 to December 2012.
State auditors also noted large discrepancies amounting to P1.4 billion in the total collection of Road User’s Tax between the collections declared by the Land Transportation Office and the amount certified by the Bureau of Treasury.
Another P515.5 million of the Road Fund was used in 2004 to 2008 for payment of salaries, allowances, maintenance and other operating expenses normally chargeable to the regular budget, Alvarez said.
In 2011 some P62.5 million of the Road Fund was spent as overhead expenses for the Road Board’s engineering, and this was on top of the P1.6-billion irregularities discovered in 2013, Alvarez also noted.
Suspected by many to have been a source of massive corruption and other scams, the Road Board quietly operated under RA 8794, which imposed a MVUC on owners of all types of motor vehicles. This law was enacted on June 27, 2000.
The Speaker said all Road Fund collections must be remitted to the National Treasury and properly appropriated to government agencies such as the DPWH and the DOTr.
The Road Board was supposed to ensure prudent and efficient management of special funds known as the Road User’s Tax (or Road Fund) exclusively for road maintenance and improvement of road drainage, installation of efficient traffic lights and road-safety devices, and air-pollution control.
To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@gmail.com.