THE decision to abolish the Road Board and include some P45 billion in collections from the motor vehicle users’ charge (MVUC) in the national budget is timely, as it eases the burden to raise more taxes, Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III said on Sunday.
This, as senators—who had earlier insisted that the House of Representatives bill abolishing the board, which they adopted and backed despite the congressmen’s belated withdrawal of the same —signaled support for a separate inquiry into alleged misuse of billions of MVUC funds.
The transfer of funds to the general appropriations—where they can be examined line by line to prevent anomalies—should not end the matter, the senators added. There is a fiscal duty to find out where the P90 billion earlier flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA) as having been misused, actually ended.
Asked if he will support an inquiry to look deeper into Road Board anomalies in aid of remedial legislation to prevent similar irregularities, Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito told the BusinessMirror: “Of course! Pera ng taumbayan ’yan [That’s the people’s money]! I would support an investigation not to be vindictive, but so it would become a deterrent and a warning not to waste taxpayers’ money.”
Ejercito added, “Managot ang naglustay ng pondo ng bayan! Dapat talaga may makulong nang magtanda at matakot. Problema sa atin, walang nakukulong, madalas nakakalusot, kaya wala rin takot na magnakaw sa kaban ng bayan [Those who plundered public funds should go to prison. The culprits should be jailed to serve as a deterrent. The problem here is that no one gets jailed, so the thieves are not scared to steal the people’s money].
For his part, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto said of a separate inquiry, “Yes, I would. Although I have a good idea of what happened. Off-budget items are more prone to corruption.” “Yes,” Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon, who earlier declared the Road Board “dead,” as the House insisted on keeping it alive, said in reply to the BusinessMirror’s query.
Senate President Sotto said, however, that while a separate legislative inquiry would be good basis for remedial legislation, “It’s better if COA will forward their findings to the Ombudsman” so the suspected culprits can be investigated.
‘All’s well that ends well’
Also on Sunday, Sotto said that including the P45 billion in MVUC funds in the GAA eases the pressure to raise new taxes. “All’s well that ends well,” Sotto added in a separate radio interview, saying he learned that House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. had issued a statement on Sunday morning that “they’ll transmit their version” to the President so the Road Board abolition can be signed into law.
The Senate chief wondered aloud how the House leaders could have misinterpreted President Duterte’s wishes on the Board’s fate when, in fact, he said, “as early as January and February [2018], President Duterte had been telling me that [he wanted the Board abolished because of the irregularities].” Duterte also conveyed the same to then-Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez and then Majority Leader Rodolfo C. Fariñas Sr., Sotto added. “That’s why Senator [Manny] Pacquiao filed a bill abolishing it.”
The Senate subsequently decided to shelve the Pacquiao bill and simply adopt the House’s version of the abolition bill, in order to skip having to convene a bicameral conference committee and thus save time.
However, he recalled, the senators were stunned when the House —under the new leadership of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who assumed office in July—recalled its abolition bill and said it did not want the Board abolished, after all.
Andaya said last week the signal to keep the Board came from Duterte himself, in a dinner a few weeks ago. However, Sotto said, Duterte had already affirmed just last Friday his early 2018 decision to scuttle the Board, and since this is also the lawmakers’ sense, then the Board should go, once and for all, and the MVUC funds integrated in the GAA.
Why Road Board is ‘dead’
In a statement on Saturday, Drilon said, “The Road Board is dead and there is nothing the House of Representatives can do to revive it.”
Drilon, himself a former Senate President and Justice secretary, said, “No law is needed to abolish the Road Board. It is already dead.”
Even if the courts finally decide that the Road Board cannot be abolished if Arroyo does not sign, or endorse, the bill abolishing the Board, the agency is rendered inutile, Drilon stressed.
Drilon said it will only take for the members of the Board, upon the directive of the President, not to approve any project or authorize the release of funds, including the Board’s maintenance and other operating expense (MOOE) budget.
This can be done because Congress, explained Drilon, delegated the power to appropriate the Road User’s Tax to the Road Board, majority of whom are Cabinet members, during Speaker Arroyo’s term as President.
“If the Road Board will not exercise that delegated authority, Congress cannot do anything,” Drilon said.
“That is how the system works: Congress authorizes, the President dispenses. It is an integral part of the check and balance in our system of government,” he added.
Moreover, Drilon said that in the 2019 budget, the Senate, consistent with its position that the Road Board should be abolished, can move that the Road Board be given a zero budget.
Last week, the Senate, upon Drilon’s motion, unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Office of the President to order the Road Board not to release funds from the MVUC, following the passage by both houses of Congress of the bill scuttling the Board.
Under the law, the funds should be earmarked solely and used exclusively for road maintenance and improvement of road drainage, installation of adequate and efficient traffic lights and road safety devices, as well as for air pollution control.
However, the COA over the past years has consistently flagged non-compliance in the utilization of the funds from the MVUC, Drilon noted.
From 2001 to May 2018, the total collection for MVUC reached P166.18 billion with total releases amounting to P136.87 billion.
“Congress has already decided to abolish the P133-billion Road Board; the President has made his position very clear that he is for its abolition. We must respect the legislative process and the decision of the President,” said Drilon.