Bid to use road tax fund for floods backed

THE leadership of the House of Representatives on Sunday backed President Duterte’s pronouncement to use over P40 billion in collections from the controversial Road User’s Tax to end the problem of flooding.

Majority Leader Rolando G. Andaya Jr., in a statement, said the lower chamber will designate its contingents to the bicameral conference committee reviewing the bill abolishing the Road Board on January 14.

The bicameral committee will reconvene to work on the “genuine” abolition of the Road Board.

“This makes the proposed bicameral conference committee on the bill more urgent and indispensable. In concurrence with the President’s wishes, the House will designate the members of our contingent to the bicameral conference committee on our first session day next year, on January 14,” he said.

“In the bicam, we have to ensure that all proceeds from the MVUC [Motor Vehicle User’s Charge] form part of the General Fund. We want to strip MVUC collections of its status as a hidden off-budget

item that will be spent by one person in an untransparent way,” Andaya added.

According to Andaya, the President has made clear how he wants the Road Board abolition done.

During his visit to calamity areas in Bicol recently, the President spelled out the need to use proceeds of the road user’s tax or the motor vehicle user’s charge (MVUC) in helping calamity victims.

“With the President’s latest instructions, the bill being pushed by the Senate and the previous House leadership on Road Board abolition is dead in the water. He wants total Road Board abolition, not fake abolition. The utilization of MVUC in the bill is the complete opposite of what the President wants,” Andaya said.

But he said, as he explained earlier, that the present House leadership advocates the 100-percent dismantling of the Road Board.

“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.

“The proceeds need to be included as a line-item fund in the annual budget of the DPWH in the General Appropriations Act. This way, the real and full funding level of the DPWH is reflected clearly, unlike today when MVUC spending is segregated and treated as a non-national budget expenditure,” Andaya added.

Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz