Cashless scheme affects 2,700 toll road workers

MANILA, Philippines — Around 2,700 expressway employees will either be retrained or lose their jobs due to the ongoing shift to full cashless toll collection, toll road operators said yesterday.

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) president Rodrigo Franco said 715 workers in its 377 toll booths are affected by the transition to the cashless scheme.

MPTC operates the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway and the Cavite Expressway.

San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has about 2,000 employees at its 369 toll lanes, Skyway O&M Corp. president Manuel Bonoan said.

SMC operates the South Luzon Expressway, Southern Tagalog Arterial Road, Skyway, NAIA Expressway and the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway.

Bonoan said SMC has a significantly higher number of workers compared to MPTC as it employs ambulant tellers to take care of payments at the queue.

“For us in the Metro Pacific group, what we are prioritizing now is the retraining of our employees who will be affected by the removal of cash transactions in our toll plaza,” Franco said.

The purpose of the retraining, according to Franco, is to retool the employees’ skills and enable them to transition to other jobs not only within MPTC, but even within the entire Metro Pacific group.

As for those who will not be accommodated in the new positions, Franco assured “they will get far more than what is required under the law.”

“We will follow and make sure that they are happy with their situation,” he said.

The SMC group, meanwhile, said affected employees would also be moved to other functions or other projects, or “if they prefer to leave the company because of the change, they will also be accorded the same as provided for by law.”

In August, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) ordered the implementation of fully cashless transactions starting on Dec. 1 to protect the health and safety of citizens because of the pandemic.

The implementation, however, has encountered numerous problems, which the agency referred to as “birth pains.”

In a Senate hearing on Thursday, DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade said they could not “do away” with having cash booths for emergencies.

NLEX had earlier reopened cash lanes in all toll plazas of the expressway.

SMC said it would maintain one cash lane per toll plaza in order for vehicles with no RFID stickers to still be allowed entry and given their Autosweep stickers, and also help prevent traffic congestion at its toll plazas.

Sen. Grace Poe yesterday pressed for a leadership change in the Toll Regulatory Board, chaired by Tugade. Transport Undersecretary Ruben Reinoso oversees the TRB’s performance and reports regularly to the DOTr.

Poe said Reinoso “apparently did not report all the developments on NLEX” since 2017 to Tugade.

“Mayors have been lodging their complaints, only to fall on deaf ears,” Poe said. – Paolo Romero