Senators on Tuesday said there should still be cash payment options available for motorists using expressways, while they questioned why the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) was issuing the implementing rules on toll roads and not the Department of Transportation (DoTr).
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III said Tuesday he favored hybrid transactions instead of a 100 percent cashless transaction when traversing expressways, adding there should always be an option for motorists for cash payment.
“If the person who wants to use the tollway operation and has cash and does not have the card, he cannot use the tollway system,” said Pimentel.
But if he has cash which is the legal tender of the Republic of the Philippines, he can pay in cash.
“How come, his cash, which is the legal tender by law, is being rejected by this system?” Pimentel asked.
On the other hand. Sen. Francis Tolentino sought clarification from Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the Senate committee on public services, on Senate Resolution 596, which urges the DOTr to immediately suspend its order for expressway operators to implement a 100-percent cashless toll collection starting this month.
“Apparently, this is a confusing state of affairs. There is a department order issued by the Department of Transportation by virtue of their mandate under Executive Order 292 and after that, the Toll Regulatory Board issued implementing rules and regulations (IRR),” said Tolentino.
“This is again the issue on IRR which is so confusing. For the first time, instead of the department issuing the IRR, an agency of the department issued the IRR. Isn’t this complicated?” he added.
Sen. Joel Villanueva said that while there was a need to instill discipline among motorists, expressway regulators must also face sanctions for their failure to fully prepare the implementation of cashless transactions.
Villanueva stressed that even before the November 2020 deadline, the Senate had called the attention of the Transportation department on the matter and apparently, their call fell on deaf ears.
“Then, we want to punish them (motorists), we want to impose discipline. And what about these regulators? What about this NLEX management?” Villanueva asked as he expressed willingness to co-author Senate Resolution 596.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri rallied behind Senate Resolution 596, describing it a very laudable because “we see that traffic is terrible, and the situation is very confusing.”
He also proposed that the agency look for other ways to promote the use of radio-frequency identification such as opening more lanes or offering discounts.
“There are many ways to skin a cat so if you want to promote the use of the RFID then, maybe, you can open up more lanes exclusively for RFID and lessen the lanes of cash transactions. This way, people will see that there is no traffic in the RFID lanes,” Zubiri said.
