GMA using road tax for campaign — Ping

LUCENA CITY — President Arroyo is using billions in road user’s tax collections for her election campaign, opposition presidential hopeful Sen. Panfilo Lacson said yesterday.

"This is a classic case of Mrs. Arroyo’s misuse of taxpayers’ money to boost her election bid," he told journalists covering his campaign here.

He said the billboards containing the President’s smiling photograph and proclaiming that the roads are maintained under her "Kalsada Natin, Alagaan Natin" project are funded out of the so-called road user’s tax.

He said the billboards have been installed only recently along national highways throughout the country since the paint on them is still fresh.

Lacson said aside from these "road distractions," the Arroyo administration is hiring more than 800,000 casuals at P180 a day purportedly to help maintain and clean the thoroughfares.

"The emergency employment program is also funded out of the road tax," he added.

He questioned the "legality and propriety" of the President’s use of road tax funds at this time when she is aspiring for a full six-year term in May.

It was the first time Lacson provided details to the accusation he made in Aklan three days ago that the President is using government funds for election purposes.

For his part, House Minority Leader Carlos Padilla, Lacson’s lone senatorial candidate, urged the administration to make a detailed accounting of billions in road user’s tax collections.

He said he is happy for hundreds of thousands of casuals employed in the "Kalsada Natin, Alagaan Natin" program, but that they should not thank Mrs. Arroyo for their jobs.

"They should thank the three million motor vehicle users who are paying the so-called road user’s tax and the Filipino taxpayers in general. It is their money that is being used for this project that has been timed with the election campaign," he said.

He said because of the tax, owners of cars and other motor vehicles are now paying twice as much as they used to pay in annual registration fees for their vehicles.

He pointed out that an owner of an old car, for instance, now pays about P1,600, up by 100 percent from the old registration fee of P800.

Iloilo Rep. Rolex Suplico, one of several Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino congressmen supporting Lacson, said the idea of "misusing" road tax collections was proposed to Mrs. Arroyo by his former House colleague, Danilo Suarez of Quezon.

He said Suarez is an Estrada loyalist who was able to come under the good graces of the Arroyo administration.

He was the author of the road user’s tax in the last Congress, he added.

Suarez ended his three terms as Quezon congressman in 2001. He was succeeded by his wife Aleta. He is widely believed to be aspiring to become Mrs. Arroyo’s secretary of public works and highways vice acting Secretary Florante Soriquez.

Because of the 100 percent increase mandated by the Suarez law, annual collections from motor vehicle registration fees jumped from P4 billion three years ago to a projected P8 billion this year.

Part of the increase is to go to the maintenance of national and local roads, while a portion of it is to be used for road safety purposes.