Withdraw rate hike petitions, toll road operators asked

MANILA, Philippines - Party-list group Bayan Muna urged toll road operators in Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon yesterday to withdraw their petitions for a rate increase starting Jan. 1 next year.

Rep. Neri Colmenares said other toll road operators should follow the example of companies running the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) and the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR), which have withdrawn their toll increase petitions filed with the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB).

Despite the withdrawal of the petitions, he said he and his colleagues in the Makabayan bloc at the House of Representatives would pursue the investigation of the planned adjustments.

“We also urge the people to continue to be vigilant and object to unjust rate increases,” he said.

Aside from SLEX and STAR, rate adjustment petitions for North Luzon Expressway, Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway are pending with the TRB.

Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya, who is TRB chairman, has said he would ask the Commission on Audit to scrutinize the financial documents of toll road operators before their rate increase petitions are considered.

The SLEX operator has asked for a 33-percent hike, while the STAR concessionaire has petitioned for a 16-percent adjustment. It is not clear why they withdrew their petitions.

Groups opposed to the proposed rate adjustments claim that toll road operators are making billions in profits and should forego the planned increase.

Aside from Abaya, the secretaries of finance, economic planning and public works and highways sit in the TRB. The board’s executive director is former Marinduque congressman Edmundo Reyes Jr.