OFFICIALS and executives of the concessionaires of tollway facilities such as the NLEX Corporation and San Miguel Corporation Infrastructure will be invited at the House to shed light on system malfunctions which caused long lines and heavy traffic congestion last Holy Wednesday.
House Deputy Majority Leader Erwin Tulfo, ACT-CIS partylist said Monday that Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez had instructed him to look into the operations and maintenance of RFID of tollway operators and why the system lags and fails resulting in heavy traffic.
“In fact, this has been a long-standing complaint not only during holidays or high-demand events but is actually recurring on an everyday basis as suffered and endured by our citizens. Thus, I was instructed by Speaker Romualdez to look into the operations and maintenance of RFIDs of tollway operators and why the system lags and fails resulting in heavy traffic,” said Tulfo.
“It is disheartening that during a time when our citizens seek ease and convenience in their journeys, they are instead met with long hours of delays and inconvenience due to the automated systems designed to provide seamless toll collection. This also undermines the riding public who pay a premium to avoid traffic in other major thoroughfares but are met with heavy traffic in NLEX, SLEX and Skyway anyway,” he added.
Tulfo said that if the heavy traffic congestion in expressways cannot be resolved, a review of the respective concession agreements of these tollway facility operators and grantees may be done by Congress to ensure that these entities are fulfilling their obligations to the government and the Filipino people.
“Speaker Romualdez and the House of Representatives are committed to upholding the highest standards of infrastructure provision and service delivery. We urge the cooperation of stakeholders involved to work towards swift resolutions and the continuous improvement of our tollway operations for the benefit of all,” Tulfo concluded.
