MANILA -- Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) President and Chief Executive Officer Rodrigo Franco said the company is agreeable to a staggered implementation of toll fee increases once the upward rate adjustments are approved by government.
This is in response to the request made by Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade during the 2nd Economic Journalist Association of the Philippines (EJAP) Economic Forum on Tuesday, for a “gradual implementation” of toll rate hikes in expressways operated by MPTC that include North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), Cavite Expressway (Cavitex), and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX).
MPTC has petitions for toll rate increases in the aforementioned expressways that are pending since 2011.
For NLEX, a 15-percent toll rate fee hike is requested with adjustment period of every two years. Toll rate increase petition for Cavitex is at 25 percent with adjustment period of every three years, while a 19-percent rate annual adjustment for SCTEX.
Tugade also asked that the arbitration case against the state relating to toll rate adjustments be scrapped once the company and the government have settled the issues.
“We don’t know yet the final form of the settlement,” said Franco. “But nevertheless what you can see also is we supported the position of the government that we find a mutually acceptable way of settling the issue.”
He added that a one-time implementation of the toll rate increase, which value has accumulated since 2011, “is not going to be acceptable to the public”.
“So we can say that if we agree on an adjustment, it would be on a staggered basis,” the MPTC executive said.
If the toll fee adjustments will be approved, Franco said the company is also “committed to terminate the arbitration case”. (PNA)
