Lawmaker to probe tollway congestion

MANILA --A lawmaker will look into reports and complaints on malfunctioning RFID systems at the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) that allegedly caused long lines at toll plazas and heavy traffic congestion last Holy Wednesday.

House Deputy Majority Leader Erwin Tulfo said this was Speaker Martin Romualdez's instruction.

"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," Tulfo said in a statement.

Tulfo added that Romualdez instructed him to invite the officials and executives of the concessionaires of tollway facilities such as the NLEX Corporation and San Miguel Corporation Infrastructure, among others, to shed light on the causes of the system malfunctions.

"The officials of the Toll Regulatory Board and DPWH are also invited to give us a comprehensive background and solutions to this problem," Tulfo explained.

"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 very 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.

According to Tulfo, 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 public.

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