House Majority Leader and Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. on Friday said it was time that Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno come clean and stop “blindsiding the President” by giving him “alternative facts” about the Road Board.
He added that the abolition of the Road Board, which Diokno supports, was not among the priorities listed by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez in a letter sent to House leaders.
“We in Congress believed that Secretary Dominguez is speaking for the economic managers when he spelled out the government’s economic agenda. Now, who is telling the truth, Secretary Dominguez or Secretary Diokno?” Andaya asked.
Andaya said he was able to talk to the President personally on the matter but the Palace said the congressmen might have misinterpreted what Duterte said.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said it was Duterte’s decision to abolish the Road Board “since Day One.”
‘Since Day One, I have been against this road user’s tax because it’s just being used as a cash cow of corrupt politicians’,” Panelo quoted Duterte as saying.
But Andaya kept up his attacks on the Budget chief.
“Secretary Diokno is just assuming. This is not the time to second-guess the President. Now is the time for Secretary Diokno to talk to the President and come clean on the issue. He should stop giving alternative facts. He should stop blind-siding the President,” Andaya said.
“Better that Secretary Diokno bring with him a copy of the bill on the so-called ‘Road Board abolition’ personally to the President,” he said.
“Or if he is really up to it, I challenge Secretary Diokno to a debate on the proposed [House] Bill [7436] to see who is telling the truth.”
Earlier, a senior administration lawmaker who declined to be named said a group led by Dominguez, wanted to oust Gloria Arroyo a month after her election as Speaker.
But Andaya said the House has passed all the legislative measures that the economic managers sought from Congress.
“All of these bills have already been submitted by the DoF to the committee on ways and means,” Dominguez said.
“In that letter, it is clear that the DoF just wanted to increase the registration fees of the motorcycles, cars, trucks, jeepneys, sports utility vehicles and all other motor vehicles. Not a single word was ever mentioned to abolish the Road Board,” he said.
He said Diokno was “all over town telling our people that the President wanted the abolition of the Road Board.”
Meanwhile, Kabayan party-list Rep. Ron Salo declined to comment that he was among the 41 lawmakers who asked for Road Board funds for several infrastructure projects in 2017 and 2018.
“Thanks. But I won’t comment,” he told the Manila Standard in a text message.
Cibac party-list Rep. Sherwin Tugna said “we are still collating documents. As of now, I don’t remember if I have referred or asked. I cannot comment,” he told the Manila Standard.
On the other hand, LPGMA party-list Arnel Ty said nothing has been released yet for each representative that has applied.
“We have been doing that even before. We just propose and if they [Road Board] entertain [our requests], they endorse them to the [proposed] General Appropriations Act,” he said.
Manila Standard tried to reach other lawmakers, such as PBA party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles and Surigao del Norte Robert Ace Barbers, to comment on their requests, but received no responses from them.
The Palace, meanwhile, said the President might sign the bill abolishing the Road Board even without Arroyo’s signature, saying that lawmakers would have to court to challenge Duterte’s move to get rid of the corruption-laden agency.
Panelo said Malacañang has already received a copy of the bill signed by the Senate President, but not the Speaker.
Panelo said there could be a court battle if the Senate transmits the bill to the President even without Arroyo’s signature.
Andaya previously said that Congress could not transmit an enrolled copy of the bill because it could not contain Arroyo’s signature, but Malacañang viewed the Speaker’s signature as only “ministerial.”
To resolve the legal question, Panelo said that “somebody will have to go to the courts.”
“Maybe if the President really wants to end this, he will sign it and then they will go to the Court. Those from the House, they may question it,” he said.
Panelo agreed with Senate President Vicente Sotto III that the House could no longer recall the measure since it was already adopted and passed by the Senate.
Both the Senate and the House passed a bill abolishing the Road Board during the speakership of Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez.
However, three months after Arroyo assumed leadership following the ouster of Alvarez, the lower chamber adopted a bill voiding the previous House Bill No. 7436’s approval on third reading.
The Palace has said Duterte wants to abolish the Road Board amid allegations that some lawmakers want to use the road user’s tax for the 2019 elections.
The President himself has said he wants the Road Board abolished.
“I will abolish one to three agencies. That Road Board, they have to go,” Duterte said at the time.
A senior lawmaker, who requested anonymity, said it was hubris on the part of the economic managers to accuse members of the House of Representatives of “unparliamentary behavior” when they themselves conspired with some members of Congress to oust Arroyo shortly after she assumed the speakership in July.
He said Dominguez and Diokno marched into Arroyo’s office more than a month after she was elected Speaker and demanded that the 2019 national budget not be slashed or altered, saying it was “the President’s budget.”
When House leaders refused, the economic managers tried to instigate moves to oust Arroyo as Speaker, the lawmaker said.
