Macalintal urges lawmakers to sponsor bill giving 20% toll discount to seniors

MANILA, Philippines—Election lawyer Atty. Romulo Macalintal urged lawmakers to sponsor a bill that would grant senior citizens and persons with disabilities a 20-percent discount whenever they go through tollways and skyways.

This came after previous laws that once granted such discounts were repealed when Congress enacted Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 and the RA 10754 or the Expanded PWDs Privileges.

These two laws, which were enacted in February and March of 2010, removed the word “skyways” from the land transportation list to which senior citizens and PWDs are entitled to a 20% discount.

“I am making this humble remarks and appeal to any one of them to sponsor a bill reinstating the word “skyways” in the list of land transportation covered by the 20% discount for SCs and PWDs and make it clear that such discount applies to toll fees in skyways and expressways and have the bill certified by President [Rodrigo] Duterte as urgent to expedite its passage,” said Macalintal in a statement Wednesday.

Senior citizens and PWDs were granted a 20% discount in 2004 when traveling through tollways in skyways due to Republic Act No. 9527 and that privilege was further stressed in 2007 when RA 9442, which was an amendment of RA No. 7277 or Magna Carta for Disabled Persons, and Other Purposes, was enacted in 2007.

Those discounts will only be enjoyed if the vehicle a senior citizen or PWD that traveled through tollgates are registered under their name.

In 2010, the discounts for senior citizens were repealed when Congress removed the word “skyways” in RA 9994, or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 and the same thing happened to PWDs in 2016 when RA 10754 or Expanded PWDs Privileges was passed.

The removal of the word “skyways” in the two legislative measures effectively took away the 20% toll discount senior citizens and PWDs previously enjoyed.

“Our SCs and PWDs were practically ‘abandoned like sheep without a shepherd,’” said Macalintal, who’s an advocate of senior citizens and PWDs.

Despite Macalintal’s request to the Department of Transportation and the Toll Regulatory Board to grant senior citizens and PWDs a discount, the two government bodies couldn’t do so as the law excluded such privileges.

“Indeed, a sad day for SCs and PWDs to know that it was not the ‘legislative intent’ to grant them such privilege. But for sure, a great majority of our representatives and senators did not notice such deletion or removal of the word ‘skyways’ from said amendatory laws,” said Macalintal. [ac]