San Miguel Corporation (SMC) has waived P156 million toll fees for doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, and other medical workers using its expressways in the past 10 months.
Now, the toll operator will allow 10,400 medical frontliners to use the newly-opened Skyway 3 for free indefinitely, president Ramon S. Ang
This means that even when the expressway starts collecting toll fees after the current free use period for the public set by Skyway 3, medical front liners will still continue to benefit from toll-free passage.
Since mid-June 2020, SMC has been the only toll operator still implementing a “no toll fees” policy for medical practitioners at its expressways - the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR), the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), the Skyway system, NAIA Expressway (NAIAX), and the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX).
"We have been providing this courtesy to our medical practitioners non-stop since the pandemic because it’s our way of honoring them and thanking them for their efforts to save lives and to help us survive this crisis,” Ang stressed
Skyway Stage 3 is also part of SMC’s efforts to help the country, he noted.
Saddled with numerous right-of-way issues that resulted to higher costs and a longer timeline, it was finally soft-opened to the public last December 29—toll-free until February 1.
SMC fully funded the project with no government subsidies or guarantees.
SMC paid in full for all right-of-way properties and built three new bridges in San Juan, Mandaluyong, and Manila to fast-track the 18-kilometer elevated expressway traversing Metro Manila’s densest cities.
In the first two weeks since it was soft-opened, Skyway 3 recorded an average of 71,000 vehicles per day.
Fully operational, Skyway 3 can easily accommodate 200,000 vehicles or half of daily Edsa traffic.