Valenzuela suspends NLEX business permit
MANILA, Philippines — Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian made good on his earlier threat and suspended NLEX Corp.'s business permit—and consequently, its operations within the city Monday evening, citing the company's failure to improve on its implementation of the RFID toll system.
In signing Executive Order No. 2020-034 ordering the uninterrupted service of utilities operated by private corporations, Gatchalian wrote: "It is to be conceded that Valenzuela City is suffering from the unusually heavy traffic since the full implementation of cashless toll collection by the NLEX Corporation's RFID system and toll booths."
With the suspension order, motorists will still be able pass through the NLEX system, though toll fees will no longer be collected by the corporation.
"Considering the holiday rush, coupled with the lifting of truck ban and number coding scheme give rise to heavier volume of vehicles on the road, the abysmal state of [the] RFID system contributes to the chaos and exacerbates the traffic situation in the city," he also said.
Gatchalian had earlier rejected a plea by the North Luzon Expressway Corp. for at least two weeks to resolve the heavy traffic over its implementation of the RFID toll system, saying its response fell short of providing concrete action to what he said was the "atrocious traffic" caused by its RFID implementation.
This comes after the government began to prohibit most cash payments in toll roads to lessen the risk of coronavirus transmission, all part of an ongoing thrust of the department to come up with a seamless toll system where motorists would only have to load only one wallet.
READ: Government seeks to integrate cashless toll system in expressways
NOW: Mayor @rex_gatchalian to personally serve the Executive Orders suspending the business permit and business operations of NLEX in Valenzuela City. #TollHoliday pic.twitter.com/pxNeOEKOoR
— valenzuelacity (@valenzuelacity) December 7, 2020
Binay urges toll operators: Print primers, hold massive info drive
Earlier Monday, toll concessionaires and operators SMC TPLEX Corp., the Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., and NLEX Corp. signed a memorandum of agreement to test the use of the AutoSweep and EasyTrip RFID tags for cashless toll payments.
In a separate statement, Sen. Nancy Binay called on the same companies to launch information campaigns to alleviate the renewed traffic woes caused by the RFID implementation, saying many of the problems were caused by a lapse in dissemination.
"What many people see is that information dissemination is largely lacking. Not many are aware of the possible problems for both RFID and non-RFID users, or if anything is posted if there is a lower amount for load eh maaantala sila sa toll booth. Many people experience problems because they aren't aware," the senator pointed out, calling on the transportation department to consider extending the deadline for mandatory cashless payments in toll expressways until the end of February 2021.
At the start of the implementation of cashless transactions in public transport, motorists that flocked RFID application sites at the time were unable to get their stickers on time, because, among other reasons, toll operators failed to anticipate the demand and ran out of stickers
"Sa dami ng technical issues like errors in registering, balance check problems, reloading issues, hotline troubles, etc., the disjointed systems of toll operations compound the RFID chaos and confusion. Yung awareness at impormasyon yung kulang. Clueless pati mga motorista galing ng probinsya. Having an RFID sticker doesn't guarantee a smooth entry or exit. It seems having enough load is more important," Binay also said.
READ: Toll operators agree to test interoperability of RFID payment systems
— Franco Luna with reports from Christian Deiparine
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