The petition for a public hearing on the toll fee hike was elevated to the DoTC by judges, lawyers, academicians, and motorists in Bulacan after the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) sat on it for more than a month. They said the public hearing they were asking could defuse the tension that has been building up daily since the exorbitant toll fee increases were made effective almost two months ago.
The petition filed by the Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines (CTAP) suffered the same fate in the hands of the TRB but CTAP has not yet elevated its petition to the DoTC. CTAP, it was learned, was still waiting for the action of the TRB.
Lawyer Pete S. Principe, one of the Bulacan lawyers who signed the petition seeking a reversal of the order increasing the NLEX toll fee, said the public hearing which they want the DoTC to conduct could enlighten the government on the need to lower the fee to reasonable level.
Aside from Principe, other signatories to the petition were Judge Oscar Herrera Jr. of the Regional Trial Court of Bulacan, Judge Manuel Siytangco of the Bulacan RTC based in Sta. Maria, Bulacan; Rosario Pimentel, Bulacan State University president, and lawyers Jose I. dela Rama Jr., Vicente Bordador, Edmundo O. Rimando, and Juan Bañez.
Named respondents in the petition were the Tollways Management Corporation (TMC) and the Manila North Tollways Corporation (MNTC).
"There was an exorbitant, unconscionable, and excessive in NLEX toll fees amounting to 388 percent," Principe said. "The increase is arbitrary, inequitable, and capricious. It is a heavy burden not only to petitioners but also to other motorists using the North Luzon Expressway."
Principe added that in a case where the economic lifeblood of the community is affected by such an arbitrary and oppressive act, it is more prudent, more equitable, and more in accordance with due process that proper and appropriate public hearings be conducted.
The CTAP, headed by retired Colonel Rodolfo T. de Ocampo, said the toll fee increase "is indubitably exorbitant, arbitrary, and unreasonable."
De Ocampo said the increase in toll fees by almost 400 percent has aggravated the already sagging condition of their business aggravated by the continued rise in the prices of fuel, lubricants, truck parts, and tires.
"We are appealing to the TRB to issue an order suspending the implementation of the rates until such time that an appropriate and reasonable increase in toll fees shall have been finally determined," De Ocampo said.
