Pimentel questions House’s ‘rescission’ of Road Board abolition bill

There were no objections and the motion was carried. (File photo: Senator Koko Pimentel/Facebook)

MANILA — Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III has described as “legally questionable” the House of Representatives’ “rescission” of an already-approved equivalent bill, also providing for the Road Board’s abolition.

Pimentel has called for the abolition of the Road Board last year, which culminated in the passage of Senate Bill 1620 last February with senators voting 18-0.

The House of Representatives, on the other hand, approved its own version, House Bill 7436, unanimously voting 172-0 in May.

Last September 12, the Senate adopted House Bill 7436 and replaced SB 1620 with the lower house bill, dispensing the need for a bicamercal conference between the two chambers to reconcile disparate versions of the proposal.

Later the same day, however, the House passed a motion that voided House Bill 7436.

There were no objections and the motion was carried.

Senate leaders have since expressed the view that it was up to President Rodrigo Durterte to resolve the matter, considering the Chief Executive was fully supportive of the Board’s abolition.

Pimentel, chair of the Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, stressed that the Road Board’s abolition was intended to be a major step in curbing corruption and properly managing the government’s financial resources earmarked for putting into place world-class infrastructure.

“What we continue to have instead is an agency ridden with corruption and inefficiency. The Commission on Audit flagged the Board for such ills in its scathing 2017 report, precisely the reason why we sped up the measure to legislate the Board’s necessary demise,” Pimentel said in a news release issued Thursday.

“The lower house cannot just inform us later that they changed their minds and tell us the House version has ceased to exist anymore. The Senate actually made adjustments and approved their version already because we wanted immediate passage of a law addressing the Road Board. Let’s not be sidetracked and distracted. The signing of a law abolishing the Road Board should remain a priority,” Pimentel said.