Pimentel: Duterte wants the Road Board abolished

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III and President Rodrigo Duterte applauds as during the first anniversary celebration of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) Cares and the PDP-Laban Leaders’ Reunion at the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) Building in Pasay City on Aug. 15, 2018. (Photo by ACE MORANDANTE / Presidential Photographers Division)

MANILA, Philippines— No less than President Rodrigo Duterte has said: “We should abolish the Road Board.”

Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III recalled the President telling him those words “in very categorical terms” during the birthday party of Sen. Manny Pacquiao last Dec.17.

“During the birthday party of Sen. Manny Pacquiao on Dec. 17, 2018 in Gen San, President Duterte called for me and told me in very categorical terms that ‘we should abolish the Road Board’,” Pimentel said in a Viber message to reporters on Friday.

Pimentel said he told the President that bill seeking to abolish the Road Board had been passed already by the upper chamber when he was still the Senate President and by the House of Representatives during the time of then Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.

But the House later rescinded the approval of the bill immediately after Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the post of Speaker.

“Hence, this incident should be clearly indicative of President Duterte’s desire to abolish the board,” the senator said. “The President wants the Road Board abolished!”

The senator was echoing Malacanang’s repeated statements that the President would want the Road Board abolished.

This was contrary to the claim of House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. that Duterte wanted to continue the operation of the Board as allegedly indicated in a meeting in Malacañang last September.

Andaya said Arroyo was also present at the meeting.

READ: Andaya doubts President will abolish Road Board

The Senate and the House are in a stalemate on the issue of abolishing the board, which oversees the road user’s tax.

Under the law that created the board, the funds collected from the road user’s tax should be earmarked for maintenance and improvement of the country’s roads, drainage and road safety devices. /atm