(Eagle News) — The Senate on Tuesday, Jan. 22, adopted the House of Representatives’ bill seeking to abolish the Road Board.
With the adoption of revised House Bill 7436, a bicameral conference committee will no longer have to be convened.
The bill will therefore be directly sent to President Rodrigo Duterte for his approval.
The adoption came following issues about whether or not the Road Board could be abolished in the first place amid developments in the House and the Senate.
The House of Representatives passed the measure seeking for the abolition of the Road Board, which is in charge of the road vehicles users’ tax President Rodrigo Duterte said was a source of corruption, under then-Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
When Gloria Arroyo became Speaker and Rolando Andaya Jr. House majority leader, though, the House passed a measure rescinding the body’s previous approval of the measure.
The rescission became the basis for some congressmen to argue that the Road Board could not be abolished even if the Senate adopted the version under Alvarez.
Andaya also argued that Duterte himself did not want the Road Board abolished.
Senators argued, however, that the House under Arroyo no longer had jurisdiction over the measure since the Senate’s adoption of the version under Alvarez came before the rescission.
Andaya also later changed his tune after Duterte himself said he wanted the Road Board abolished due to corruption allegations.
