A Congress-approved bill abolishing the “graft-tainted” Road Board Regulatory Agency, transmitted to the Palace on February 8, awaits President Duterte’s signature, the last stage for the remedial legislation to become a law.
To pave the way for its early enactment, the Senate adopted without amendments House Bill (HB) 7426, dispensing with the bicameral conference committee usually tasked to reconcile conflicting provisions in the Senate- and House-approved versions of a bill.
The Road Board abolition bill was forthwith transmitted to Malacañang on February 8 for President Duterte to approve or veto within 30 days, beyond which it will automatically lapse into law.
Congress insiders, however, ruled out a presidential veto, recalling that it was Duterte who earlier prodded legislators to pass a law abolishing the Road Board amid reports of anomalies in managing funds from the Motor Vehicle User’s Charge (MVUC) supposed to be used exclusively for road maintenance and improvement of road drainage, installation of traffic lights and road-safety devices, as well as air-pollution control.
The President himself complained that billions of revenue from the road user’s tax found its way to corrupt officials’ pockets, even as the Commission on Audit (COA) consistently flagged the utilization of MVUC funds.
For his part, Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III recalled that the COA had also questioned the use of P90 billion of over P160-billion MVUC funds collected last year.
Records provided to the Senate showed the Road Board collection from 2001 to May 2018 for MVUC added up to P166.18 billion, of which P136.87 billion were released. Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, however, confirmed that the board still had an unspent MVUC fund of P45 billion.
Senate probers recall that Duterte had earlier asked Congress in 2017 to abolish the Road Board as part of his administration’s effort to streamline services and stop corruption in the agency.
Acting on the presidential request, Majority Leader Juan Miguel F. Zubiri on January 22 formally moved for the Senate to adopt HB 7426 abolishing the Road Board to enable Congress to submit the bill for signing into law sooner.
As approved, the Senate and the House of Representatives agreed to adopt a provision to remit the road users’ tax to the National Treasury to fund priority programs and projects of the government, with allocations of the fund to be decided by Congress in crafting the annual national budget law.