The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved on second reading a new bill abolishing the graft-ridden Road Board.
House Majority Leader and Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., chairman of the House committee on rules, led the introduction of the new measure with “perfecting amendments” to the original House Bill 7436 after the House and Senate reached a consensus.
Before the bill’s approval, Andaya said the bill will be sent to the Senate next week for its reconsideration.
READ: Senate rejects bicam on Road Board
“Common sense and real reform are winners in the agreement to genuinely abolish the Road Board. It is a victory for transparency, too,” Andaya said.
Andaya said the funding for the Road Board will go to the general fund under the annual national budget.
He said Congress will secure an “urgent” certification from the President to have the bill enacted the soonest.
Andaya said the House led by Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has long advocated “a real, and not the fake abolition of the Road Board.”
Andaya said “the version that was pushed by the previous House speaker, Pantaleon Alvarez, created “three powerful road kings.”
“The present House leadership, on the other hand, insisted on treating MVUC (Motor Vehicle Users Charge) collections as part of General Fund, and not as an off-budget, hidden account, controlled by a few, a status retained by the previous bill,” Andaya said.
“We have also stood our ground in earmarking MVUC collections for transport-related activities. The spurious Road Board abolition bill inserted a provision that would have diverted funds to waste segregation,” Andaya said.
Andaya added: “The House-Senate consensus spared the President [from] signing a defective bill, which some powerful interests wanted him to. The attempt to hoodwink the President has been foiled.”
But Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte appealed to the bicameral conference committee members to set aside a share of the multibillion-peso Motor Vehicle User’s Charge (MVUC) collections for flood mitigation projects, particularly in Bicol, as President Duterte had committed.
Villafuerte recalled that during Duterte’s visit to Camarines Sur early this month following the onslaught of Tropical Depression ‘Usman,” the President had reiterated his desire for the Congress to abolish the Road Board and committed the use of its MVUC funds to solve the perennial flooding in Bicol.
He said solving the flooding problem in Bicol would boost farm productivity in Camarines Sur, one of the country’s top rice-producing provinces.
“Despite the perennial floods, CamSur has emerged as the No. 6 rice producer,” he added. “We could easily become No. 2 or No. 3 if the chronic floods will become a thing of the past.”
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri described as successful the meeting he had with Andaya and Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto.
He said they agreed that the amendments to the bill abolishing the Road Board would be short and simple.
He said they also agreed that “all monies collected will be remitted to the National Treasury; to be used for construction, repair, and rehabilitation of roads, bridges, and road drainage under the annual
General Appropriations Act; and to abolish Road Board.”
The senator also expressed confidence that his colleagues would agree to recall the adoption of the earlier House version of Road Board bill and proceed with a bicameral conference committee meeting.
The senators were to discuss the matter Thursday, he said.
On Sept. 12, 2018, the Senate adopted HB 7436 and replaced its own version of the Road Board abolition bill, a move that would have made a bicameral conference committee meeting unnecessary.
Later the same day, however, the lower House passed a motion that voided its version of the proposed measure, placing the Road Board abolition in limbo.
Andaya said the previous House leadership pushed for a version of the bill that would not really abolish the board, but merely create “three powerful road kings” – comprised of the secretaries of the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources—that would exercise absolute control over the MVUC or the road users’ tax.
President Rodrigo Duterte wanted the Road Board abolished due to corruption allegations.
The Road Board oversees funds collected from the MVUC solely for road maintenance and drainage improvement, the installation of traffic lights and road safety devices, and monitoring air pollution. It is
tasked by law to identify and propose allocations for road projects to be funded by proceeds from the MVUC—the tax paid whenever cars are registered with the Land Transportation Office.