Taking its toll

Taking its toll | Daily Tribune

Sometime in 2010, I lawyered for then Ilocos Norte second district representative Imee Marcos in a Supreme Court case. My family had known the Marcoses since the 1960s. My father was a staunch loyalist until the day he died, and was a Nacionalista from the time he entered politics before I was born until an ailing Doy Laurel handed over the reins of the party to Manny Villar, whom dad distrusted.

The case was about the continued operation of the expressways by its long-time concessionaires, by virtue of a Supplemental Toll Operation Agreement (STOA) issued during the time of President Ramos. We argued that the investment of these toll operators had long been recouped and they should not be allowed to keep collecting fees. Speaking of fees, my legal representation of Imee was not pro bono, although she did invoke — quite strongly, I might add — our two families’ long association, to ask for a hefty discount. It’s true that you can take an Ilocano out of Ilocos, but you can’t take the Ilocano out of an Ilocano. Or to quote my law partners, “na-Ilocano tayo.”

But I digress. Part of my consolation in that case was that it resulted in a leading case (Marcos et al. v. Republic et al.) and — against all expectations — a partial victory, whereby the High Tribunal struck down as unconstitutional the STOA extending for 50 years (from 2005) the concession of the Manila North Tollways Corporation (then owned by the Lopezes) over a goodly portion of the South Luzon Expressway. In my humble way, I was able to save thousands of our countrymen from illegal extractions when traveling south of Luzon. That was until new players arrived and were granted concessions anew.

My point is this: after taking a deep dive — for purposes of the case — into how these tollway contracts are reached between the Republic and private corporations, I was shocked — shocked! — to find out that immense profits are to be made with these agreements. And when I say “immense,” I mean enormous, vast, mammoth, colossal, massive, tremendous! I would have included more synonyms, but I am limited to 650 words for this column.

I will not go into the details —they are copious and complicated — but I understand now why the Big Boys of Business are falling all over themselves for a slice of the expressway cake.

I get it that they invest huge sums into these projects, and are entitled to a decent return — that’s business. But there is a reason why such franchises are covered by documents under the general rubric of certificates of public convenience: these projects should be for the convenience of the population in general, with private profits secondary. In theory, at least.

But those who have been blessed with these lucrative deals by the government seem to go out of their way to inconvenience the public. Not only are they trifling with the law for their own gain when they insist on purely cashless payments, but they want to maximize their income by operating these highways on the cheap.

The common gripe is poor lighting and inadequately marked construction areas, which could cause accidents, which are (obviously) inconvenient. But one festering concern is the frequent malfunction of the sensors (readers, whatever you call them) that are supposed to scan the radio frequency identification (RFID) devices stuck to our cars, for ease of access and payment.

In this day and age, toll operators just had to utilize the most ancient and unreliable systems for this purpose. The toll plazas operated by Ramon Ang’s co rapid technological advancements, thempany are the most notorious for this. And they complain that the bottlenecks at these toll plazas are caused by the motorists. The gall!

If not remedied pronto, these irritants — high fees, poor services and maintenance, draconian conditions and lousy toll systems — are all going to take a toll on the public, and may well toll some trouble for these concessionaires.