Ang argues against SLEX toll reduction

The proposal of a Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) representative to cut toll fees for the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) is seen to only worsen congestion problems as it would affect the construction of the Skyway extension project, San Miguel Corp. (SMC) said.

In a statement, SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang questioned statements of TRB private sector representative Raymundo Junia to discount the toll on the expressway, following a traffic jam last Sept. 25 with the start of construction of the Skyway Extension.

According to an earlier news report, Junia said he would propose a cut in SLEX toll fees by at least P44, based on the average toll covering the 8.3-kilometer northbound stretch of SLEX from the Susana Heights exit to Sucat exit in Muntinlupa.

“To the good representative: you want us to provide discounts because to you, our construction is causing traffic; we’re not giving motorists value for their money. May we ask: how can we solve Alabang traffic in the first place if we don’t build new roads? What will happen if we don’t do anything? Would motorists be happy if we didn’t disrupt the status quo of 10 to 12 kms. of traffic every day?” Ang said.

Ang said the proposal to reduce toll rates is ill-advised and would end up being detrimental to both motorists and the country.

“We understand the knee-jerk reaction is to ask for something in return for a slight inconvenience.

It’s a populist idea. But I hope those pushing for this understand and see the bigger picture,” Ang said.

Ang said suspending road tolls would violate their concession agreement and damage their standing with the banks.

“In our loan covenants, there are stipulations about earning back the money we borrowed to build or improve our infrastructure. If banks see that government can just stop honoring concession contracts, they will also stop lending to local companies. Investor confidence will go down,” he said.

The company official pointed out that SMC has more than P7 billion in foregone revenues from periodic toll increases that were never granted.

“Toll increases are part of our contract. They are needed for us to recover our investment and be able to pay back the money we borrowed to build or expand infrastructure. We have not been allowed to implement any increases since 2012,” Ang said.

While other expressway operators have already filed cases against the TRB for the toll increase implementation, Ang said SMC has not done such because it felt it could still take it and stay focused on its efforts to aid the government in helping the public.

“Suspending the toll now would be like punishing a company that, despite still having billions in receivables, has taken the initiative to invest another P10 billion to solve Alabang traffic, once and for all,” Ang said.

The Skyway extension will add capacity for 4,500 vehicles per hour on the northbound side, and 3000 more vehicles per hour on the southbound section. It will make travel faster and easier as motorists will be able to bypass the Alabang viaduct and even EDSA, if they’re headed to either NAIA, Makati, Manila, Quezon City, or beyond.

SMC earlier owned up and apologized for for the traffic jam that occurred on Sept. 25 along SLEX due to road closures for the start of the construction of the Skyway extension project.

“We’ve also set clear targets as to when various stages of the work will be completed. I feel that most people are reasonable and they see that this project will help them.”

Ang said that before the construction, on a daily basis, normal peak traffic in the area stretches anywhere from five to 12 kilometers.

He said that traffic went back to normal a few days after the incident

“Motorists were already unhappy with one or two days of extraordinary traffic. Can you imagine how much worse they will feel if, for the next decade or so, the situation continues to worsen, and nobody does anything about it? ”Ang said.

Ang said that perennial traffic on the SLEX heading to Alabang is caused primarily by the design limitations of the SLEX-Alabang area would the company inherited from the former concessionaire.

From Susana Heights, SLEX has five lanes, but at the Alabang viaduct, this narrows to just three, creating a bottleneck.

“This has always been the problem for motorists coming from the south. It’s a chokepoint,” Ang said.

The SMC president said traffic volume increases every year with tremendous growth in the southern provinces – Cavite, Batangas, Laguna.