Senators on Monday refused to convene the bicameral conference committee on the Road Board abolition but asked Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri to meet with House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya to discuss the matter.
READ: House all set to work for abolition of Road Board
“Generally, the sentiment was there is no need for a bicam because we have adopted the House version. We tasked Senator Zubiri, the majority leader, to talk to the majority leader of the House, Congressman Andaya, to find out their reasons why there is a possibility that we can go into a bicam but nothing official. That was agreement with Minority Leader Franklin Drilon,” Senate President Vicente Sotto III said.
At the moment, Sotto said, the Senate maintains that the House measure abolishing the Road Board has been adopted.
“So whatever the outcome of the talks between the two majority leaders, we will take it up again and most probably, that would have to be tomorrow,” Sotto said.
He added that the Senate would await the results of the talks between Zubiri and Andaya before sending the enrolled bill to the President for signature.
Drilon said the agreement was reached during an all-senators caucus conducted earlier in the day.
In an interview, Drilon said the senators maintained the position that no bicameral conference committee need be convened because as far as they were concerned, they had adopted the House version with no disagreeing provisions.
But the current House leaders, led by Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Andaya, say the House has revoked the approval of the bill, which was drafted and approved during the time of the previous speaker, Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez.
Drilon on Sunday warned that the 17th Congress will likely close without abolishing the corruption-tainted Road Board if the Senate heeds the House’s call for a bicameral conference committee.
He said it is important that the Senate maintain its position that the bill to abolish the Road Board was validly passed.
President Rodrigo Duterte has said he wanted to abolish the Road Board and its collection of the road user’s tax be placed in the hands of the National Treasury.
The Road Board, a collegial body led by the secretaries of the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Budget and Management, and the Department of Finance, had been mired in controversy due to allegations of corruption and misuse of public funds.
The Commission on Audit said the agency had misappropriated about P90.7 billion collected from the road user’s tax.
