More loopholes were uncovered in the implementation of cashless transactions in tollways, Senator Win Gatchalian said Monday.
Due to this, he told Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade to accede to the overall impression of failure of leadership and failure of enforcement of regulatory officials manning the expressways.
Senators were told during the recent hearing on radio-frequency identification (RFID) that the mandatory cashless toll collection proceeded even sans any clear-cut policy and sanctions against erring toll operators, plan on the site for installation and reloading lanes, and without ensuring first whether there were still glitches in the system.
Tugade subscribed to ineptness in overseeing the accountability of toll operators due to the absence of any specific sanctions or penalties and key performance indicators.
“Whose leadership are you alluding to? You said leadership, whose leadership?” Gatchalian, vice chairman of the Senate Public Services Committee, asked during the hearing to which Tugade candidly replied with “The head of the Toll Regulatory Board, the executive director among others.”
Tugade sits as the chairman of the board in the TRB, the executive director of which is Abraham Sales.
Sales told the committee the matter on the glitches in the RFID system was only discussed in a consultation meeting after the DOTr issued Department Order 2020-012– the policy mandating cashless transactions in all toll roads in the country beginning December 1, 2020.
He admitted those glitches are still currently being addressed by toll operators.
Gatchalian and committee chairperson Sen. Grace Poe highlighted the lack of existing schedule of penalties in the concession agreement of the TRB with NLEX Corporation, operator of the 101-kilometer North Luzon expressway (NLEx), the gateway of Metro Manila to Central and Northern Luzon, as well as in the implementing rules and regulations of DOTr’s department order.
Three years since the memorandum of agreement for toll interoperability and electronic toll collection was inked by the government and toll concessionaires, the basis for the issuance of DO 2020-012, senators noted the lack of any existing sanctions and performance standards which could hold toll operators liable on issues such as the radio frequency identification mess.
He pointed out that the MOA “is useless, it’s a mere toilet paper.”
“That's why you are here. We have a problem… we cannot measure the performance of NLEX Corp. and you, the regulator, should be measuring them," said Gatchaliam.
During the hearing, senators learned that the TRB board convened to address the problem only last December 9.
Meanwhile, Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian belied rumors on his family that he said distracted the public on the issue of heavy traffic in the city's tollway.
A message circulating on Viber alleges the Gatchalian family was interested in a portion of land worth P100 million owned by Maynilad, but the mayor's family only offered P500,000.
Gatchalian said it was the local government that expropriated the land from a private citizen, who was a former city councilor, to build a polytechnic college.
The local government only found out that the land was owned by Maynilad during court proceedings, the mayor said.
Maynilad and NLEX Corp are under the MVP group of companies.
Gatchalian said: “I think the public should not be distracted from the real issue: the traffic, which we're finding a way to solve.”
Gatchalian earlier issued a suspension order against Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation for being unable to address heavy traffic in NLEX due to its supposed faulty RFID system. The tollway has since resumed operations.
Metro Pacific Investments Corp. chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan has denied his firm's involvement in the issue.