CAVITEX gives up P300 million from toll holiday

MANILA, Philippines — The Metro Pacific Group has given up about P300 million in revenues by relieving up to 5.4 million motorists of toll charges for 30 days at the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway.

The CAVITEX Infrastructure Corp. (CIC), a subsidiary of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., will resume collecting fees at CAVITEX today, ending a 30-day toll holiday in all of its exits.

CIC president and general manager Raul Ignacio said the free toll program benefitted up to 180,000 motorists daily, with the company surrendering revenues of at least P300 million in the process.

“Average daily traffic for this month reached 180,000. As such, forgone revenues will amount to approximately P300 million,” Ignacio told The STAR yesterday.

With the toll break lifted, the CIC hopes to recover forgone income beginning today as it needs more capital to complete its expansion plans. It is also getting a concession extension of two months in exchange for the toll holiday.

In June, President Marcos announced that CAVITEX would implement a toll break for 30 days, to ease the impact of fuel price hikes on motorists.

The toll holiday covered all CAVITEX interchanges, allowing motorists to pass through for free along its exits in Kawit, Parañaque, Merville, Taguig and Sucat.

However, as a toll operator, the CIC paid for the cost of the program as it sources the budget for capital and debt expenditures from the toll collection.

Apart from this, the CIC is expanding CAVITEX on both of its fronts to enhance accessibility to motorists, and these projects demand billions of pesos.

For one, the CIC in June opened the second leg of the CAVITEX-C5 Link called Sucat Interchange, an initiative that cost P6.7 billion.

Currently, the company is investing P4.1 billion to put up the third and final section of the CAVITEX-C5 Link.

Similarly, the concessionaire is building a P2.1-billion connector road to the Cavite-Laguna Expressway, to facilitate travel between the two tollways.

In an advisory, the CIC announced that the use of the Sucat Interchange is still free as the company is waiting for the Toll Regulatory Board to approve its petition to begin toll collection.

The CIC, in partnership with the Philippine Reclamation Authority, holds the concession to operate and maintain CAVITEX.