Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian on Monday suspended the business permit of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) Corporation in the city to comply with the mayor’s demands to address the traffic jams reportedly caused by its radio-frequency identification (RFID) toll collection system.

Gatchalian had demanded an action plan to solve the traffic jams and an explanation on why the city government should not suspend its business permit.

Gatchalian personally served the executive order to the managers of six toll plazas in the city Monday night.

"Considering the holiday rush, coupled with the lifting of truck ban and number coding scheme give rise to the heavier volume of vehicles on the road, the abysmal state of NLEX Corporation's RFID system contributes to the chaos and exacerbates the traffic situation in the City," the order read. 

"Since time is of the essence, losses of the general public and businesses essential to our fledgling economy, were piling up enormously every single moment, which is wasted in heavy traffic caused by the unreliable RFID system and therefore causes severe and irreparable damage to the general public and the economy," it added.

Gatchalian noted that the employees of the toll operator willingly complied with his order and turned off the RFID sensors and opened the barriers. 

With the Valenzuela mayor's executive order, NLEX Corporation will not be allowed to collect toll fees from motorists entering through Valenzuela City. 

"Hindi tayo dapat nagbabayad sa isang serbisyo na hindi makatarungan (We should not pay for a service that is unfair)," Gatchalian told reporters.

"It (toll holiday) may not be the cure to all but we addressed one of the major traffic issues," he added.

The cashless toll collection system was fully implemented on December 1 to promote contactless transactions amid the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. 

Earlier, the local chief executive earlier rejected the toll operator's appeal for a 15-day extension to allow them to reply to the concerns raised by the local chief executive.

Gatchalian had given the NLEX Corporation a 72-hour deadline to explain why the city government should not suspend their business permit in light of its "miserable failure" to comply with its obligations in a letter dated December 3.

He also gave the toll operator 24 hours from the receipt of the said letter to provide them with an action plan to solve the "RFID fiasco," which NLEX Corporation failed to do.

The Valenzuela mayor also demanded NLEX Corporation to take full responsibility for its reported "shortcomings and mistakes" in the RFID toll collection system. 

He also wanted the toll operator to issue a public apology and offer concessions to the public "in the form of toll holiday pending acceptable."

Finally, Gatchalian asked for the lifting of its toll boom gates or barriers to ease the traffic situation in the city.

TRB chief told to resign

Earlier in the day, the mayor’s brother, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, called for the resignation of the executive director of the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) for failing to address the glitches and traffic experienced by motorists due to the mandatory registration for cash less payment on expressways.

The senator said the TRB’s executive director should go stressing the need for the agency to have a more aggressive chief to address the mess brought
about by the sudden shift to RFID that has caused massive traffic build up, especially along NLEX.

“Yes, it’s time we get a more aggressive executive director. Until now, we hear nothing from him and yet the traffic in NLEX has worsened,” Sen. Gatchalian told reporters.

The senator said the executive director is supposed to be in charge of the day-to-day activity of the TRB and reports to the board for policy-making.

It is also the ED who is supposed to have full knowledge and control of the situation, Gatchalian pointed out.

“He is placed there to prevent problems for happening and hold the operators to account,” he said.

“This problem has been happening for some time and yet the regulator is not doing anything. The situation worsened because of the mandated prepaid RFID on all tollways. We, in Valenzuela, are so fed up with the defective RFID system),” he stressed.

The senator had earlier urged lawmakers to review the concession agreement between these toll operators and the TRB.

He warned expressway opera tors they could lose their concessions if
they are found negligent.

If operators cannot extend good service, he said the public has the power to
rescind their contract.

Inter-operability underway

In a bid to ease the problems confronting motorists over the mandatory use of RFID, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) said toll operators San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) have signed a memorandum of agreement to jointly test the use of their RFID tags – Auto Sweep and EasyTrip.

EasyTrip tags are issued by the MPTC for NLEX, SCTEX, CAVITEX, C5 Link, and CALAX while the AutoSweep are for SMC-operated tollways STAR, SLEX,
Skyway System, NAIA Expressway, and TPLEX.

DOTr said the test is part of its ongoing campaign to implement a policy of toll inter-operability for fast and seamless travel of motorists on various toll roads as the country continues to recover from the impact of the pandemic.

“We are grateful to our private partners who have demonstrated their unparalleled support in this project. We need their assistance to fast-track the necessary measures to fully implement toll interoperability,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, who witnessed the signing ceremony, said.

Under the agreement, a steering committee will be created to implement and monitor the operators’ compliance with the test which will involve 45 vehicles, composed equally of different vehicle classifications.

The inter-operability testing will be conducted for 14 consecutive days in which an AutoSweep RFID sticker will be activated using an EasyTrip account, while an EasyTrip RFID sticker will be activated using an AutoSweep account.

After the test, the participants will submit their test transaction reports and dashcam video recordings to the steering committee for assessment.

The steering committee will be given five days from the complete submission of the data collected to determine the read rate percentage or the system’s performance indicator when comparing RFID infrastructure.

The DOTr had earlier explained that the Toll Collection Interoperability project, which was launched in 2017, will be implemented in three phases with the 100 percent cashless and contactless toll payments form as the first phase.

Is it possible to waive toll?

Meanwhile, the TRB said the proposal to temporarily waive toll for motorists passing NLEX is possible, but only when gross negligence of the toll operator was proven.

“That is an option available to the TRB. If there is real gross negligence on the part of the toll operator and they have been greatly remiss in their responsibilities, then that option might be resorted,” TRB spokesman Julius Corpuz said in an interview on Monday.

Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gatchalian had earlier threatened to suspend the business permit of NLEX Corporation in the city should it fail to address the “atrocious traffic situation” on its expressway caused by glitches in its RFID systems.

Gatchalian also recommended NLEX to implement a “tollway holiday” and
temporarily suspend the toll being charged to motorists until it improves its services, a proposal backed by his brother, Senator Gatchalian.

On the part of TRB, which regulates the operation and maintenance of toll facilities, Corpuz said that it will have to “review, analyze and come up with a very appropriate decision” if a sanction on the matter is necessary.

Corpuz said the regulatory body has been continuously auditing and observing the impact of the cashless toll collection system in toll expressways since the start of its implementation last December 1. (With a report from Alexandria Dennise San Juan)