Miriam to probe P42-billion road users' tax

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has vowed to look into how the P42-billion road users’ tax – collected from 2001 to 2008 – is being spent by the government.

Santiago made the promise after she learned from the Commission on Audit (COA) that the implementors have failed to account for some P8 billion in road taxes last year. 

She said this is the biggest pork barrel in the government and nothing compared to the President and lawmakers’ pork allocations.

Santiago said she hopes to conduct an inquiry, preferably on Thursday, to determine if the government revenues generated from the so-called motor vehicles users’ charge are spent wisely.

“We will see how they spend it. Apparently they don’t follow a guideline. If it is being stolen, then that’s billions every year,” she said over dzBB radio.

Santiago said the road users’ tax is supposed to have totaled to about P42 billion since its implementation from 2001 to 2008.  

Congress passed a law in 2001 imposing the tax to be used in the maintenance of roads and highways, pollution control as well as the purchase of needed materials like “catch eye” road safety devices and guard railings.

Santiago lamented that Congress failed to create an oversight committee on the use of the tax.

“This is a big mess. There’s no oversight committee in Congress so it’s free to spend. This is among the top three sources of money in the country,” Santiago said in Filipino.

She also slammed officials of the Road Users’ Tax Board for alleged misuse of the funds. The Board, which is under the Office of the President, is the body mandated to allocate the use of such funds.

It is chaired by the secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways, with the secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications, and two nominees from motorists and transport groups as members.

“There is a Road Board and the Cabinet members. There is also an executive director who does not follow (the guidelines) despite the call of the Commission on Audit,” she said.

The feisty senator said the COA warned the board officials that the funds should be used in the maintenance of transportation and infrastructure, not as an aid to local government units.

The road users’ tax is “the biggest pork barrel unaccounted for in government,” Santiago said.

In a 2007 report, the COA disclosed that the anomalies ranged from misuse of funds and too much cash allocations to excessive and unauthorized allowances given to government officials and employees.

These alleged anomalies, the report pointed out, arose from a “breach in the budget process” regarding the use of funds from the road users’ tax which is collected annually from owners who are required by law to register their private, public and government vehicles at the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

When the alleged anomalies surfaced in 2007, the Board was headed by Dodie Puno, brother of Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno. 

Secretary Puno is a known nemesis of Santiago, who has accused him of being behind the vote manipulations in the 1992 elections.