'P50-billion road fund misused'

MANILA, Philippines - At least 15 congressmen are seeking an investigation into the alleged misuse of more than P50 billion in funds for road maintenance, road safety and pollution control.

Representatives Abraham Mitra of Palawan, Paul Daza of Northern Samar, Marc Douglas Cagas of Davao del Sur, Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City, Niel Tupas Jr. of Iloilo and Carlos Padilla of Nueva Vizcaya sought the inquiry in separate manifestations they made at recent House hearings.

Eight other congressmen led by Deputy Speaker Eric Singson of Ilocos Sur filed a resolution also proposing an investigation.

The congressmen said a large part of the money goes to the pockets of corrupt officials and contractors.

The funds whose use or misuse they want the House to look into are collections from the so-called motor vehicle user’s charge (MVUC), otherwise known as the road user’s tax.

This is a levy Congress imposed six or seven years ago on owners of all motor vehicles, whose annual registration fees were increased by 100 percent over a four-year period.

The collections go to a special fund administered by an agency called the Road Board, which the secretary of public works and highways chairs and which is attached to his department.

More than P50 billion in MVUV taxes have been collected. Annual collections now reach P10 billion to P11 billion.

Most of the funds go to road maintenance and safety projects such as the installation of catch eye markers and guard rails. A portion goes to pollution control.

Mitra said despite insistent prodding from him and his colleagues, the House committee on public works chaired by Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado has not conducted a hearing on the misuse and misallocation of MVUC funds.

Mitra has filed a resolution that seeks to abolish the Road Board and to use MVUC collections to support the annual budget instead of the money going to a special fund outside the control of the Department of Budget and Management and being dissipated.

Padilla complained that projects funded by more than P400 million in road maintenance and road safety money allocated to his province four years ago could not be found.

“The projects and the money have vanished,” he said.

There were complaints of missing funds in other provinces as well.

In Eastern Samar, road signs and guard rails worth P350 million could not be located.

“What we need here are roads, not catch eye markers and guard rails,” one local official said.

Many congressmen complain of inequitable distribution of funds. For instance, in the past two years, Nueva Ecija was given about P2 billion in MVUC money.

More than P1 billion of the projects in Nueva Ecija were given to a newly formed company called Meditech Trade and Development Corp. The company has also won contracts in Laguna.

Nueva Ecija officials said they could hardly find the P2 billion projects in their province.

Rep. Rodriguez, who belongs to the opposition bloc in the House, complained of politics in the allocation of MVUC money.

He said his district was not given funds, while other districts received tens of millions and even hundreds of millions.

In their resolution, Singson and his seven other colleagues, all belonging to the Northern Luzon bloc of congressmen, said the House should revisit the MVUC tax.

Despite the collection and expenditure of more than P50 billion, they said many roads are still in a state of disrepair and are not safe to travel.

They said people need roads, not luminous signs and markers and guard rails.

They stressed that the bulk of the money is just being dissipated for projects that the public does not really need.