Love me tender

Late last year, the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) issued a memorandum requiring all those using the nation’s tollways to install radio frequency identification devices (RFIDs) on their vehicles, with the end in view of implementing a purely cashless payment system. Faced with protests — a lot from the public, but some from the toll operators themselves — the project was put on hold indefinitely.

Now it would appear that the reprieve was short-lived, for this coming 15 March the memorandum would be applied. Under this scheme, those using the toll facilities would need to have the aforementioned RFIDs installed on their cars, trucks and/or buses in order to pay for their use of the expressways. If they don’t have one yet, they will need to have a sticker installed to use the facilities. Worse, they may be issued a ‘show cause order’ (whatever the hell that means in this context) for violating the RFID policy.”

The policy is not only stupid, it is illegal. Someone should question it before the courts. I know I will.

No one — not the TRB, not the toll operators — can require any person to pay for the use of the tollways in any manner that excludes payment in cash. By using the tollway facilities, a person operating a motor vehicle incurs an obligation to the toll operator, which he must pay either at the beginning of the trip or at the end of it, as the case may be.

Thus, we have toll gates where, if you have an RFID, the corresponding amount of the payment for the use of the highway is automatically debited from the stored value in your account. Very convenient, if you ask me; no more fishing around for money while in the driver’s seat, or waiting for change from the cashier. That is why all of my cars have RFIDs.

The use of an RFID, however, should only be an option, and cannot be made the exclusive mode of payment under applicable statutes. Section 1 of Republic Act 529, or the Uniform Currency Act, states that “(e)very obligation heretofore or hereafter incurred, whether or not any such provision as to payment is contained therein or made with respect thereto, shall be discharged upon payment in any coin or currency which at the time of payment is legal tender for public and private debts.”

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Philippine peso. Although the said law was pro tanto repealed by Republic Act 8183, it was only to the extent that, after the passage thereof, parties may enter into any contract to pay for obligations in currency other than Philippine money. The status of the local currency as “legal tender” could not have been changed, for very obvious reasons. Abrogare per consequens non est in lege.

What then does the term “legal tender” mean? It simply means that notes and coins issued and circulating in accordance with RA 7653, which when offered for the payment of public or private debt, must be accepted. In other words, it is the currency which the debtor can compel the creditor to accept in payment of a debt when tendered for the right amount.

The creditor (in this discussion, the toll operator) CANNOT REFUSE to accept cash for the payment of the motorist’s debt for using the expressway. The toll operator cannot insist that it be paid ONLY by way of debiting an RFID account. That would be against the law. If you are apprehended and detained for trying to pay in cash, you could file a criminal suit for grave coercion and/or illegal detention.

The TRB must seriously rethink the above policy, lest it run afoul of the law. Cash is cash, and cannot be refused or its status as legal tender diminished. Otherwise, the consequences could be tough, for the law on legal tender is hard, but it is the law.