Traffic jams speed up resolution seeking Senate review of toll road contracts

TOLL HOLIDAY An employee of the City of Valenzuela Public Safety Division informs motorists passing by the Mindanao Avenue toll booth that Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gatchalian has suspended the North Expressway operator’s business permit due to its flawed implementation of the electronic toll collection system. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Sherwin Gatchalian is pushing for accountability by toll road operators by asking the Senate to review the concession agreements these companies signed with the government amid the highway chaos caused by poorly managed change to an electronic toll collection system.

In a resolution that he presented on Monday, Gatchalian also asked the Senate to review the powers and functions of the Tolls Regulatory Board (TRB), the body that regulates the operation of highways and which has been publicly criticized for failing to get the operators of toll roads. to solve the problems with the new fare collection system that have been the cause of daily traffic congestion on expressways.

“It is necessary to review the concession agreements of the existing toll operators to verify if the operation of their toll collection system meets the minimum standard specifications for operations and maintenance under the certificate or agreement of toll operations,” Gatchalian said in a statement Tuesday.

Public interest

Under Presidential Decree 1112, which established the TRB, the agency has the power to grant authority for the toll operation and issue the toll operation certificate, Gatchalian said. It may also amend, modify or revoke that authorization “when the public interest so requires,” he added.

With no end in sight to the congestion on the North Luzon Expressway, the local city government of Valenzuela suspended on Monday the business permit of the toll road operator, NLEx Corp., which had apologized to the public for the inconvenience but couldn’t keep the traffic running. .

The suspension of the NLEx Corp. business permit allowed the local government to open the toll plaza, allowing traffic from both directions to pass through without interruption, easing congestion.

Gatchalian said the TRB should impose a “toll holiday” after NLEx Corp. admitted flaws in its fast frequency identification (RFID) system, including malfunctioning sensors whose failure to read toll codes caused knots of traffic at the gates and consequently traffic jams on the highway. .

NLEx Corp.’s senior vice president of communications, Rómulo Quimbo, admitted that faulty sensors were partly to blame for the congestion on the highway, but promised that his company would fix the problems in the next few days.

The company sought “friendly and cooperative initiatives” with the Valenzuela government on Tuesday, but Mayor Rex Gatchalian, Senator Gatchalian’s brother, told the tollroad operator not to “turn the table to make others look like aggressors.”

“The [local government] I had to intervene to protect the public from their incompetence, ”Gatchalian said in a post on Twitter. “Don’t pretend that you are the victim or the defender of the public interest here! We got to this point precisely because you victimized and took your customers for granted! “

‘Shock’

In a statement, NLEx Corp. president Luigi Bautista said the company would take “various steps to solve the Valenzuela problem” and protect its customers and the public.

But Gatchalian said the tollway operator had “diminished the value” of its customers with its “incompetence.”

“This Highway Theft Plan has to end. Our money is not taken out of our pockets in broad daylight just to not provide safe, reliable and efficient toll services, ”said the mayor.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) imposed an electronic toll collection requirement on toll road operators to slow the spread of the new coronavirus that causes the severe respiratory illness COVID-19.

But motorists have complained about the failure of the TRB, which is overseen by DOTr, to require a common electronic collection system. Currently, motorists are registered with Autosweep, operated by San Miguel Tollways Corp., and Easytrip, operated by Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.

Autosweep is used on the Metro Manila Skyway, South Luzon Expressway, Ninoy Aquino International Airport Expressway, Southern Tagalog Arterial Road Tollway, Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway, and Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway.

Easytrip is used on NLEx, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, Manila-Cavite Expressway, and Cavite-Laguna Expressway.

Kilometers of tail long

In suspending NLEx Corp. on Monday, the local government of Valenzuela displayed images of kilometer-long rear-end drones in Malinta and at the Smart Connect interchange caused by faulty sensors and the installation of RFID tags on vehicles.

These malfunctioning RFID sensors and the installation of RFID stickers [have] exacerbated the already depressing traffic situation [on] the toll roads and nearby highways since the inception of the shift to a purely cashless toll collection system, ”said Mayor Gatchalian.

–With a report by Mariejo S. Ramos

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