House move on Road Board bill baffling

THE recent action by the House of Representatives to “void” a bill that called for the abolition of the Road Board, which that body passed by a unanimous vote

At issue here is House Bill 7436, which would have Senate has been pursuing its own version of the same bill, - resentatives by a vote of 172-0 in May, and on September 12 the Senate adopted that version as a replacement for its SB 1620 to prevent the need for a conference to reconcile

The bill abolishing the Road Board is necessary be

The Road Board was supposed to manage the revenues collected through the tax and direct the funds to appro of roads and road drainage systems, traffic lights and

- report last year, the Road Board was forced to shelve the P4- billion National Road Lighting Program due to Road Board over a period of several years with a budget

The reasons for the Road Board’s utter dysfunction - ate concern is clearing the obstacle it represents out of the way so that the funds generated by the road users’ The Senate recognized this priority, and apparently so

adopted HB 7436 as the version to be passed along to the President to be signed into law, the House passed a resolu

No reason for the House’s ill- timed and unprecedented about- face was given, which naturally leads to suspicions that some powerful members may have

Again, those possible motivations are something that can be examined at another time; what is important now is that the unexpected and unnecessary hurdle to passage of this much needed measure the House’s baffling

simply ignoring the House’s unwise move, and sending the bill along for the President’s signature as originally bill has already passed beyond the House’s control; if it wishes to undo it, it must create a new bill repealing HB 7436, or rather, the Republic Act it becomes upon passage

Of course, an even better solution would be for the House of Representatives to recognize their collective error

Road Board alive, it would have revealed itself before HB 7436 was passed unanimously; it is almost certainly