Lawmaker questions toll collection on Batangas road

Batangas Rep. Oscar Gozos is questioning the decision of the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) to allow a private corporation to collect toll fees from users of a road built with public funds.

In Resolution 312, Gozos asked the House committees on public works, good government and legislative franchise to investigate TRB for what he called a highly irregular decision.

Gozos said the TRB has allowed Star Infrastructure Development Corp. (SIDC) to collect toll on the portion of the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) from Sto. Tomas, Batangas to Lipa City which was recently completed.

He said the government built this 22-kilometer portion of the expressway using a soft loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

Commuters, Gozos said, should not be charged for using this road, and if there is any entity that can collect fees for the use of the highway, it should be the government, not a private corporation.

As things now stand, SIDC would be raking in millions of pesos even if it did not invest in the Sto. Tomas-Lipa portion of STAR, he added.

The fees that the company is collecting are P16 for class 1 vehicles (cars), P33 for small trucks and P49 for buses and heavy trucks.

Gozos said the SIDC would be entitled to apply for and collect fees for the Lipa to Batangas City portion of STAR, which the corporation is constructing on a build-operate-transfer arrangement.

However, he said the portion assigned to the SIDC has not been completed, and that, in fact, the corporation has barely touched it.

Thus, he said he and his constituents and other people could not understand why the TRB allowed the collection of toll fees on the Sto. Tomas-Lipa portion of the highway.

He added that those responsible for such a decision should be punished for working against public interest.