The Senate will file another bill seeking to abolish the Road Board on July 1 if the House of Representatives still won’t recognize its abolition, Senate President Vicente Sotto said Tuesday.
Sotto made the statement amid the the clash of the House and the Senate over the fate of the graft-tainted body.
“Pagdating ng July 1, magfile tayo uli ng bagong abolition kung ayaw pa rin nilang maniwala na abolished ito. Eh ‘di i-abolish uli natin. Sa july 1, magpasa tayo ng bill,” Sotto said.
(We will file a new bill for its abolition if they do not believe that it is already abolished. We will abolish it again. We will pass the bill on July 1.)
Sotto insisted that the Road Board is “as good as abolished” because both chambers of Congress approved the bill that sought for its abolition and the executive department will no longer release the funding for it.
He explained that the Senate passed and adopted the House version of a bill filed by former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez abolishing the Road Board en toto; therefore, the body is “as good as abolished.”
But House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. made a motion to rescind the approval of the bill. Nobody objected and the motion was carried at the lower chamber.
READ: Senate, House clash over fate of Road Board
“As far as we’re (Senate) concerned, it’s abolished. We adopted the House version, it’s as good as a bill that is supposed to be transmitted to the President already and I’m sure the President will sign it,” the Senate President said.
“It’s as good as abolished dahil hindi na irerelease ng Executive Department ‘yung funding nun dahil ang nangyayari nga ay graft-ridden nga yung pondo. So it’s good as abolished,” he added.
(It’s good as abolished because the Executive Department will no longer release funding because the funds are graft-ridden. So it’s good as abolished.)
The Senate President even suggested that somebody from the House or the Executive Department bring the issue to the “proper venue” — to the courts if needed — to resolve the issue.
He added that the Senate cannot bring the matter to the courts because they have a “stand” that the Road Board should be abolished.
“I don’t think it’s proper for the Senate to do so kasi (because) we have a stand. Our stand is it’s abolished eh,” he said. /ee