The potholes are winning

Typhoon Uwan came and went. And as I drove out on the first day of school after the long “weekend,” I couldn’t help but think that the potholes were actually winning. It’s the same story year in, year out: the rainy season comes and goes, so do the repair crews. But the potholes, they keep coming back.

- MARVIN TORT

It’s the same story for us Filipino motorists, who pay registration fees annually on top of everything else government already collects from us. We're told these fees, also known as the Motor Vehicle User’s Charge (MVUC), are earmarked for better and safer roads. And yet, the potholes keep winning.

It’s hard to shake off the feeling that we are just being taken for a ride — and on bad roads at that. I guess the joke’s on us. What's not a laughing matter, though, is the amount of money collected from motorists every year, and how it doesn’t seem to end up where it should — on the road.

In 2019, Congress abolished the Road Board through RA 11239 and transferred MVUC administration to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Transportation (DoTr). The goal was simple: less corruption, less leakage, more efficient use of funds.

I bought into that spin and supported the abolition of the scandal-ridden Road Board, then plagued by allegations of corruption. RA 11239 took the MVUC, earmarked by law for road improvement, and gave the fund’s management to the implementing agencies. But even this “experiment” seems to be failing.

Six years into the “new” setup, it remains a mystery where the MVUC funds actually go. Why do we still see so many dangerous, poorly maintained roads if motorists have been paying a dedicated charge for decades? It doesn't seem like the Road Board's abolition did us any good.

MVUC collections — car registration fees — don’t go to the general fund. They are legally earmarked into four special trust accounts in the National Treasury: 80% for national roads maintained by the DPWH; 5% for local road maintenance; 7.5% for traffic management and road safety devices; and another 7.5% for vehicle pollution control programs under the DoTr.