NLEx Corp. has no plan for toll holiday along entire expressway — MPTC

MANILA, Philippines — The North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) Corporation has no plan to implement a toll holiday along the entire stretch of the expressway as suggested by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, the Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) said Wednesday.

Romulo Quimbo, chief communications officer of the MPTC that manages NLEx, said the implementation of a toll holiday along the entire expressway is a regulatory matter that concerns the national government.

“The matter of having a toll holiday for the entire expressway obviously is a regulatory matter, and we would like to state that the national government is the one that [makes the order],” he said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.

“We are just following the requirements of the national government and whatever the order of the national government, if this will be issued, we will of course comply. For now, we have no such plan,” he added.

Quimbo pointed out that the matter is regulatory in nature, and that the national government, especially the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB), has to step in.

Quimbo said this in response to the suggestion of Gatchalian for a toll holiday along the entire NLEx following the glitches and heavy traffic being experienced by motorists amid the implementation of the mandatory cashless toll payment system ordered by the DOTr.

The Valenzuela City government suspended on December 7 the business permit of NLEx Corp. due to the heavy traffic that its cashless toll collection has been causing in the locality.

Despite a meeting between the local government unit (LGU) and executives of NLEx Corp. held on Monday, the business permit of the company remained suspended after both parties failed to agree on the complete removal of barriers at toll booths in the city.

In calling for a toll holiday in the entire expressway, Gatchalian said that it is not only Valenzuela City experiencing problems with NLEx but also other local government units.

Quimbo, however, noted that the company has already addressed many of the problems along the expressway.

“For now we have already addressed many of the problems especially in the toll gates especially during this Christmas season, and we have recent data that the traffic has improved vastly especially along those areas where we used to have those combined activities,” he said, referring to the activities at toll booths prior to the start of mandatory implementation of cashless toll collection on December 1.

EDV