(Eagle News) – Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said the Senate maintains its position that there is no need for a bicameral conference committee on the bill abolishing the Road Board, even as talks between the Senate and House majority leaders about the issue are set.
Sotto said that this position reflected the general sentiment of senators after an all-member caucus.
“At the moment, we still stand on the issue that it has been adopted, so whatever the outcome of the talks between the two majority leaders, we will take it up again,” Sotto said on Monday.
Senate Majority Leader Miguel Zubiri was directed to meet House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr.
Zubiri said that he will discuss certain paramaters if both the Senate and the House will agree to a set of amendments.
These parameters would include the abolition of the Road Board and the inclusion of the proceeds from the motor vehicle user’s charge (MVUC) as a line-item in the national budget.
“We will reconsider the third reading approval of the Senate and reconvene a bicam if we agree on the parameters. (We have) very simple amendments: that the Road Board be abolished and secondly, that the funds be reverted to the National Treasury para magamit ng gobyerno (so the government can utilize it) for whatever purpose necessary,” Zubiri said.
