Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar created a Turn Over Committee to facilitate the implementation of Republic Act No. 11239 that abolished the Road Board which has been subjected to controversy over its fund control and allocation.
Villar signed Department Order 35, for the creation of the committee, which will be responsible in preparing an Implementing Rules and Regulations for RA 11239.
“This committee will be in charge with coordinating and facilitating the transfer of all records, property, assets, equipment and funds of the Road Board, including unexpended appropriations or allocations,” said Villar.
Villar said the committee would evaluate the position description of the existing permanent positions of Road Board and recommend, if necessary, the absorption of these employees, and determine the particular office to which the said employees would be assigned.
The Turn Over Committee will be headed by DPWH Assistant Secretary Eduardo Ramos, and will be composed of the Department’s Directors of Finance Service, Human Resource and Administrative Service, Information Management Service, Legal Service, Planning Service, and Bureau of Equipment.
RA 11239 also instructs the DPWH to absorb, “as needed,” the employees of the secretariat of the abolished agency, “without diminution of their salaries and other benefits.”
“Employees who are separated from the service as a result of the abolition of the agency and its secretariat shall receive separation benefits, ” the law stated.
The law also gives the DPWH to take on “all the rights and assume all the obligations and liabilities of the Road Board, and all its records, property, assets, equipment, and funds.”
The abolished Road Board was tasked to manage the funds collected from the motor vehicle user’s charge, which is used for road maintenance and drainage, installation of traffic lights and road safety devices, and for air pollution control.
