(Eagle News)–Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Wednesday, Dec. 19, said some lawmakers were planning to use the road users’ tax which he has refused to release as their campaign kitty.
“Marami nang lumapit sa ‘kin. I won’t name names, tinatanong (nila ang) status ng road users’ tax. Sabi ko, hindi ko re-release until that issue on the Road Board is settled,” Diokno said in a Palace briefing.
Diokno was referring to the Road Board, which determines where the road users’ tax, or the motor vehicle users’ charge, goes.
The Palace has said President Rodrigo Duterte would sign a measure abolishing the Road Board, following corruption allegations.
The Senate has adopted the House version of the measure, passed during the time of then-Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, doing away with the need for a bicameral conference to reconcile both versions of the two houses of Congress.
On the same day, though, the House of Representatives, under the new leadership of Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, rescinded its earlier approval of the proposed Road Board abolition, putting the fate of the corruption-tainted board in limbo.
According to Diokno, the Commission on Audit found that during the time of then-President Arroyo, P90.7 billion worth of road users’ tax had been “misappropriated.”
He said most of this was done with now-House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez at the helm of the Road Board.
Suarez has been vocal about what he said was the need for the release of the road users’ tax, which are paid by motorists upon registration of their vehicles.
It was also the congressman who authored a resolution urging President Duterte to reconsider his appointment of Diokno as budget secretary.
This was after House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya accused Diokno of having links to a contractor who cornered 30 government projects worth billions, and of being behind the billions of pesos in “executive pork” in the proposed national budget for 2019.
Diokno has denied the allegations.
The Palace also stood by Diokno, noting his reputation for integrity.
“Alam naman ninyo, election time na. Inaasahan nila ata yung road users’ (tax) na ma-release para sa kampanya. But I will not release it,” Diokno said.
