(Eagle News)–The Palace on Saturday, Dec. 22, welcomed House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr.’s statement the House of Representatives would heed President Rodrigo Duterte’s call for the abolition of the Road Board.
“We are pleased to know that the House of Representatives has listened to the voice of the people who have long been outraged by the corruption surrounding the use of the said tax,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.
According to Panelo, Andaya “is finally in touch with reality contrary to his claim that (Budget) Secretary (Benjamin) Diokno and I were out of touch with the President in the matter of the latter’s position on the road users’ tax and abolition of Road Board,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.
Andaya had said the President only wanted a “restructuring” of the Road Board, but gave up his position when Duterte himself said in a speech on Friday, Dec. 21, that he wanted the abolition, as claimed beforehand by Panelo and Diokno.
Panelo said the President’s call for a “clean and responsive government to the needs of the governed” should be “taken to heart by those who temporarily wield political power so that our country could commence to traverse the path righteousness and progress so long denied them by those they have entrusted with authority.”
Duterte, he said, after all, “has laid the basis of his governance at the inception of his presidency that the people’s money shall only be spent for their welfare, and those who steal from it shall be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
In his speech in Pasay on Friday, Duterte said the Road Board, which determines where the motor vehicle users’ charge goes, was only being used by politicians for money-making purposes.
He backed the Senate’s position the final measure calling for its abolition from Congress could be transmitted to his office for his approval, even if the House, under now-Speaker Gloria Arroyo, rescinded its earlier approval of its version.
The Senate has said the House lost jurisdiction over the measure when the Upper House adopted the earlier House version that called for the abolition of the board before the rescision.
