LRT, MRT to accept new P5 coins in March

MANILA, Philippines — Ticket vending machines (TVMs) of Metro Manila’s three railways would start accepting the new P5 coins by March, AF Payments Inc. (AFPI), the company behind the beep cards said yesterday.

In a statement, AFPI said they started calibrating the machines at the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Lines 1 and 2 and the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) so these could accept the new coins, released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas late last year.

The calibration work is done in Germany, as this is where the supplier of the coin acceptor unit in the machines is based, AFPI said.

The firm reminded passengers to double check their P5 coins before inserting them into the machines. They may have the new coins replaced with old ones at the station tellers.