Andaya okay with convening bicam to abolish Road Board

House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. bared Sunday that he was on the same page with Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri as far as re-convening the Bicameral Conference Committee on the proposed abolition of the Road Board is concerned.

"We are positively responding to Senator Zubiri’s call that the Senate and the House meet in conference to hammer out a better – and genuine – Road Board abolition bill," Andaya said in a statement.

"On the part of the House, we will designate the members of our contingent to the Bicameral Conference Committee on our first session day next year, on January 14," added the Camarines Sur 1st district representative.

Both chambers of Congress are currently on holiday break.

Over the weekend, Zubiri asked the House of Representatives to just re-convene the bicam on the Road Board abolition bill amid the controversies surrounding the body, which has been linked to corruption.

"Senator Zubiri’s proposal is the way forward, for both houses to jointly cure the bill of its defects, instead of carelessly sending to the President a flawed and faulty one, which does not offer reforms but more of the same bad practices," Andaya said.

"We will heed the President’s guidance by crafting a version that will truly abolish the board and move the spending of the MVUC (Motor Vehicle User's Charge) collection from darkness into light," he further said.

The Road Board's mandate is to act as steward of the MVUC.

"I recall that Migz (Zubiri) and I were freshmen opposition congressmen in 1998 who opposed the passage of the law creating the Road Users’ Tax, which was aggressively pushed then by some people who are now in the President’s Cabinet," Andaya noted.

Last September, the Lower Chamber rescinded the approval of House Bill (HB) 7436 or the proposed Act to scrap the Road Board. President Rodrigo Duterte has since made it clear that he wants the Board abolished.

"The House advocates the 100 percent dismantling of the Road Board," Andaya said.

"We do not want its powers to be merely transferred to three secretaries who will in effect be Three Road Kings who can spend the MVUC at will," he said, referring to the secretaries of the Public Works and Highways, Transportation and Environment and Natural Resources.