Palace ‘pleased’ Andaya ‘finally in touch with reality’ over Road Board
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2018 09:27:39 +0000
MALACANANG is pleased that the House of Representatives has decided to heed President Rodrigo Duterte’s call to abolish what the Chief Executive described as the “corrupted” Road Board.
Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo made the statement after Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. announced the House decision on Saturday or days after he initially said he was against the agency’s termination.
“Rep. 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,” Panelo said in a statement.
“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,” he added.
The Palace official reiterated Duterte’s commitment to fight corruption in government and hold those accountable “to the fullest extent of the law.”
“The President, pursuant to the command of the Constitution to serve and protect the people, 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,” Panelo said.
“Let the President’s call for a clean and responsive government to the needs of the governed be taken to heart by those who temporarily wield political power so that our country could commence to traverse the path to righteousness and progress so long denied them by those they have entrusted with authority,” he said.
The Senate has been urging Duterte to sign the measure that would kill the corruption-ridden agency. But the House, under Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, quashed its own approval of the bill, whose authors include ousted Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez, former speaker.
On Friday, Duterte said he was siding with the Senate in scrapping the “corrupted” Road Board, a body tasked to ensure that the Motor Vehicle User’s Charge collected from motorists will be used exclusively for road-related projects.
“I agree with the others and the senators that it is time to abolish it and return its function with the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways),” Duterte said in a speech during the change-of-command ceremony at the Philippine Air Force in Pasay City.
“I believe that the Senate has decided the right thing and has stated that the Road Board must be dismantled,” the President said.
Duterte also belied Andaya’s claim that he had agreed that the Road Board should stay.
Andaya said he had dinner with Duterte, Arroyo, and then Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go before the House withdrew the approval of House Bill 7436 abolishing the Road Board in September.
“I had a talk with [former] President Arroyo and apparently there was misunderstanding because all along I really wanted to abolish the Road [Board],” Duterte said.
“Andaya says now that it should be maintained. No. Nagkamali sila doon (they made a mistake there). My feelings about that board was at the strongest against being there,” he added.
Senate President Vicente Sotto 3rd said previously that the Senate would transmit the enrolled copy of the bill even without Arroyo’s signature.
Panelo said that the Palace has so far received only a Senate resolution calling for the abolition of the Road Board, and not the enrolled bill.
Nonetheless, Panelo said that the President may still sign the bill even without Arroyo’s signature, citing the opinion of Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, that the signing would only be “ministerial” in nature.
Created through Republic Act 8794, the Road Board is mandated to oversee the management of money collected from vehicle owners allocated for the maintenance of national and provincial roads.
In July, state auditors said they discovered that the funds were mismanaged and wasted by the “inefficient” board. CATHERINE S. VALENTE
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