By means of Ashley Erika O. Jose, Reporter
MOTORISTS driving on highways without electronic toll collection (ETC) or radio frequency identification (RFID) tags would be fined from the start March, according to the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB).
The new toll road guidelines, which were supposed to go into effect last year, are expected to be implemented March 1, according to TRB Director Alvin A. Carullo told Business world on Tuesday.
Mr Carullo said the government is only focusing on fining motorists without RFID tags first. Fines for motorists with insufficient wallet balance will not be introduced yet, he added.
“There will be fines for the lack of a valid ETC device, but fines for (motorists with) no drowsinessFThe icient load balance will not be implemented yet,” Mr. Carullo said in a Viber message.
The toll road guidelines under Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 2024-001 would come into effect from October 1 last year.
However, the Department of Transportation (DoTr) has postponed the implementation until 2025 to give toll road operators and concerned agencies time to fine-tune their operations.
All motorists who enter an access road without an ETC device will be fined P1,000 for the first violation, P2,000 for the second violation and P5,000 for subsequent violations, according to the memo issued last year.
The circular also stated that motorists who leave toll highways with insufficient account balance will be fined P500 for the first violation, P1,000 for the second violation and P2,500 for subsequent violations.
Rene S. Santiago, former president of the Transportation Science Society of the Philippines, said fining motorists without RFID tags is a bad policy due to defective RFID readers and delayed gates on highways.
“It would be fair if TRB also punishes toll road operators for poorly functioning systems and lack of interoperability,” Mr. Santiago said in a Viber message.
SMC Infrastructure, which operates San Miguel Corp.’s toll road network. (SMC), said the company is ready to introduce cashless toll payment and that all its toll roads are equipped to support its implementation.
The company also said the move to cashless toll payment would also help ease trafficFic congestion.
“SMC Infrastructure has been ready for cash toll payments since last year, and all our toll roads are equipped to support this,” the company said, noting that teams are also on standby to install RFID tags for motorists who use them not yet available.
Business world also requested comment from toll road operator Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), but had not received a response by deadline.
The implementation of cashless toll collection is necessary for the planned interoperability of electronic toll collection, the TRB said.
The TRB also plans to introduce a unified RFID wallet system that can be used on various toll roads.
Mr Carullo previously said that the TRB and toll road operators were merely ironing out the implementation of the planned interoperability.
He said they are conducting some tests to resolve some technical issues to ensure seamless deployment.
Easytrip is used on MPTC’s North Luzon Expressway, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, Manila-Cavite Expressway and Cavite-Laguna Expressway.
Meanwhile, Autosweep is used on the Skyway, South Luzon Expressway, NAIA Expressway, Southern Tagalog Arterial Road Tollway and Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway of the San Miguel group.
MPTC is the toll road unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., one of the three main Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT Inc.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a part of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., owns a majority interest in Business world through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.