Duterte inclined to abolish Road Board — Palace
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2018 09:32:00 +0000
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is inclined to sign a bill abolishing the Road Board even without the counterpart measure from the House of Representatives, which Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has yet to sign, Malacanang said on Friday.
Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo told a press briefing that contrary to the claim of Majority Leader Rolando Andaya, Jr., Duterte has remained against the release of the road users’ tax.
Panelo said that Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea told him that the missing signature of Arroyo on the House bill was “ministerial.”
He said that if the President signed the bill, there would be House members who would contest it in the Courts.
“If the President really wants to end this, he will sign it. And then, they will go to the Court, those from the House, they may question it,” Panelo said.
According to the legislative process, before a President can sign a bill into a law, both chambers of Congress should have given final approval to a bill and that an “enrolled bill” should be printed and certified as correct by the Secretary of Senate and the Secretary General of the House of Representatives.
The Senate President and Speaker will sign the enrolled bill, which will then be transmitted to the President.
For now, only the Senate version of the bill is with the Palace.
Panelo also said that he agreed with Senate President Vicente Sotto 3rd that the House lost jurisdiction over its version of the bill when they submitted it to the Senate.
“So they cannot be rescinding what they have submitted to us and we have already adopted the position,” the spokesman said.
Panelo also said that he talked to Duterte on Thursday night and confirmed that his stance remain unchanged.
“I will quote him: ‘Since day one, I have been against this road users’ tax because it’s just being milked by corrupt politicians [of money]’,” Panelo said.
Panelo also said that Andaya may have misunderstood Duterte during their supposed meeting back in September, or he was not listening closely.
Panelo said he doubted that Andaya’s list of congressmen who allegedly asked for Road Board funds was ac tually true.
“I doubt if that is true, in the same way that when he said that [Budget] Secretary [Benjamin] Diokno and I were out of touch with the President regarding the position of the President. Either he was referring to himself that he is out of touch with the President,” Panelo said.
The Road Board was created in 2000 under then president Arroyo’s Republic Act 8794 to “implement the prudent and efficient management and utilization of the special funds.”
The House withdrew its approval of its version of the bill, which abolished the Road Board last September, months after Arroyo replaced Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez as Speaker.
Duterte, in September 2017, said that he would abolish the board because it was ridden with corruption. RALPH VILLANUEVA
The post Duterte inclined to abolish Road Board — Palace appeared first on The Manila Times Online.