…. its service should not be a footnote to NLEX’s glowing numbers.
We find positive financial reports encouraging. They reflect the stability of a company and the good job done by competent managers.
The positive profit picture also mirrors the state of the economy in general—corporates are doing well under a business-friendly economic regime.
NLEX Corp., which operates the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), reported a net income of P7.3 billion in the first six months of 2024, up 31 percent from P5.5 billion during the same period last year. It attributed the increase to higher traffic volumes and toll adjustments.
NLEX managers should be proud of their firm’s financial record. Toll revenues climbed 19 percent to P14.6 billion in the first half of 2025. The company attributed the higher revenues to an increase in average vehicular traffic volume and toll rate adjustments it implemented in March in March this year.
NLEX’s impressive financials, however, pale in comparison with the service it renders when operating the two expressways.
We have heard of numerous complaints from motorists and commuters about the traffic they encounter in the infrastructure facilities.
As I have written in this column before, the heavy rains and floods in late July this year caused untold misery to thousands of commuters traveling to north of Metro Manila.
Many passengers had to wait for hours in that episode while some spent the night on their transportation because of impassable roads and junctions.
NLEX also has not provided a solution to ease the crawling traffic toward its toll gates. Last Monday, for instance, was the last day of a long weekend that sent many Filipinos driving and commuting to the northern provinces of Luzon earlier.
NLEX presumably had expected the heavy volume of vehicles and commuters lining up the expressways toward the toll gates. Unfortunately, NLEX again did not prepare for the heavy traffic volume that everybody expected on the return to Metro Manila. NLEX owes it to the commuters using the expressway to provide reliable and safe service. All it has to do is raise its expenses a little bit to provide engineering solutions to the traffic snarl near its toll gates.
Traffic at the NLEX roads will get worse as the economy expands. Per NLEX, the average daily traffic as of June 30 reached 356,392 daily vehicle entries, a 1-percent increase from 2024 figures.
The average daily traffic on SCTEX, meanwhile, reached 84,081 daily vehicle entries, a 3-percent improvement from the same period last year. The NLEX Connector recorded an average of 20,467 daily vehicle entries in the first half of 2025.
The volume of NLEX and SCTEX traffic will continue to rise in the coming years. Company revenues will correspondingly increase and boost the financials of NLEX. But its service should not be a footnote to NLEX’s glowing numbers.
Lucrative drug market
The Philippines is poised to keep its position as the largest pharmaceutical market in Southeast Asia, says report by BMI, a Fitch Solutions company.
“We forecast the pharmaceutical market to rise to P438 billion ($7.5 billion) by 2029 from P352 billion ($6.1 billion) in 2024, growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.5 percent in local currency terms and 4.1 percent in U.S. dollar terms,” the BMI report said.
This report finds relevance in the Philippines’ pursuit of warmer trade relations with India, a nation that produces cheap medicines.
The recent official visit of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to India, marked by meetings with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Droupadi Murmu and Indian business leaders, has opened a wide range of opportunities for cooperation in sectors that include pharmaceuticals.
Cheap medicines from India will significantly reduce the cost of health care in the Philippines and lessen our dependence on Western drugs.
India as a source of foreign investment should be encouraged. Indian pharmaceutical giant Aurobindo Pharma Limited, earlier expressed strong interest in establishing a manufacturing facility in the Philippines.
Relocating the big Indian pharmaceutical companies here is an ideal investment set-up. They will provide manufacturing capacities to make medicines more affordable and create create jobs at the same time.
E-mail: rayenano@yahoo.com or extrastory2000@gmail.com
