(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte wants to abolish the Road Board, the Palace said on Tuesday, Dec. 18.
In fact, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte would sign the bill abolishing the graft-tainted body once it reaches his desk.
He said President Duterte was also against the release of the P45-billion road user’s tax, which instead, according to Duterte, should be returned to the treasury.
“..Let Congress appropriate again for a specific purpose,” Panelo said.
In February, the Senate passed Senate Bill 1620 seeking for the Road Board’s abolition due to alleged irregularities in the motor vehicles user’s charge.
Three months later, the House of Representatives approved its counterpart, House Bill 7436, authored by then-Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
On September 12, the Senate did away with SB 1620 and adopted HB 7436 instead, which meant a bicameral conference was no longer needed for the House and the Senate versions of the measure to be reconciled.
Later the same day, however, the House passed a motion made by new House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. that voided the body’s earlier approval of HB 7436, making the fate of the abolition of the Road Board uncertain.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon has said, however, that the House of Representatives could no longer reconsider its approval of the measure since it no longer had “jurisdiction” over the same when the Senate adopted HB 7436.
