"Suspend or scrap this altogether."
The Toll Regulatory Board has apparently been coddling the erring toll companies, particularly the NLEX Corporation to the detriment of public interest.
Department of Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, who chairs TRB, should explain why the body failed to lift a finger to address the traffic quagmire caused by NLEX Corporation’s dysfunctional Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system at the North Luzon Expressway.
House Transportation Committee vice-chair Rep. Edgar Sarmiento has called on President Duterte to consider vetoing TRB’s P38-million budget for 2021 that might as well be used to buy more anti-COVID-19 vaccines.
The NLEX RFID fiasco has simply unmasked TRB’s ineptness and lack of accountability.
TRB officials, headed by its executive director Abraham Sales, is as guilty as the NLEX toll operators for negligence in implementing an inoperative RFID system that cost the motoring public and commuters time and money.
It took the local government unit of Valenzuela City to act on the worsening traffic that has turned NLEX into an EDSA-like gridlock.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Rex Gatchalian ordered the business permit of the NLEX Corporation suspended, stopping its implementation of the cashless automated toll payment and enabling motorists to pass through free of charge.
Of course, giving motorists a free pass is not the real solution to the traffic problem.
NLEX Corporation obviously could not immediately revert to the usual cash-based payment system as the intent of the implementation of RFID the DOTr plan to adopt a non-contact, cashless system at the toll plazas.
In issuing the business permit suspension, Gatchalian urged NLEX to resolve the problems with the RFID, including defective sensors and errors in Easytrip’s load, once and for all.
Since Tuesday, motorists have been stuck in traffic at the NLEX toll plazas for up to two hours just because the RFID sensors could not read the Easytrip sticker on each vehicle’s windshield.
I agree with Mayor Gatchalian that such cannot go on for another two weeks, the period that NLEX Corporation asked for fixing the RFID system.
Instead of addressing the problems, NLEX Corporation officials had the temerity to threaten the LGU with filing for a court’s temporary restraining order against the business permit suspension.
That starkly shows the toll company official’s shameless lack of good faith. NLEX Corporation is a subsidiary of Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC).
We share the disappointment and frustration of the Valenzuela mayor over NLEX Corporation’s double talk while the TRB is sleeping on the job.
I must agree with Rep. Sarmiento and other lawmakers who urged the Duterte administration to suspend implementation of the RFID non-cash payment at NLEX in the meantime.
Caloocan City Mayor Oscar Malapitan and Guiguinto, Bulacan Mayor Ambrosio Cruz have likewise denounced the NLEX Corporation’s failure to implement the RIFD efficiently.
I say suspend it or scrap it altogether.
