Miriam pushes strict oversight by Congress of Road Users Tax

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Miriam Defensor appealed yesterday to both houses of Congress to exercise strict oversight of the multi-billion Road Users Fund in the 2011 budget.

In letters to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Santiago asked them to personally intervene and ensure that the road fund is deposited in the national treasury and subsequently appropriated by Congress in the upcoming 2011 budget.

“Until the recent past, the fund was deposited directly with the Department of Public Works and Highways, and released by the Road Fund Board without congressional scrutiny. As I pointed out in a privilege speech late last year, that anomalous procedure provided occasion for freewheeling plunder of the P60-billion Road Fund from the road users tax,” Santiago said in her letter.

With this move, Santiago said Congress would also be able to ensure that the fund will be devoted according to the law, the proper maintenance of roads, drainage systems and other public works.

”...That will guarantee our citizens’ safety during floods occasioned by strange typhoons emanating from climate change,” she said.

Sen. Franklin Drilon, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, said he will review how the Road Users’ Tax should be utilized by the government.

“In the absence of the provision there, we can do it. And I am in favor of doing it because indeed the road users tax, the last time I checked ran to about P9.5 billion for the last nine years,” Drilon said.

Drilon vowed to look into Santiago’s proposal as the Senate starts reviewing the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

“In fact this is one of the areas that we will examine closely when we come to the budget of the DPWH. The committee on finance will look closely into the users of the road users tax. And in fact I have talked to a number of senators who are in favor of letting the fund go directly to the general budget and let Congress look into the appropriations,” Drilon said.

But we have to amend the law on that point, Drilon added in an interview.

Although she is on sick leave due to chronic fatigue and hypothyroidism, Santiago called on the two leaders to find ways to include the revenues from road users’ tax to be directly deposited to the national treasury so that Congress can have a say in appropriations.

In a privilege speech in November last year, Santiago recommended the filing of plunder charges against former public works secretary Hermogenes Ebdane and former Road Board executive director Rodolfo Puno for their involvement in the alleged anomalous disbursement of the road users tax.