VALENZUELA CITY announced on Wednesday the lifting of the suspension order against the business permit of NLEX Corp., after both parties agreed to keep toll barriers up on all lanes for vehicles with radio-frequency identification (RFID) stickers.

Valenzuela City Mayor Rex T. Gatchalian said in a social media post that the “toll holiday” had ended at 12:01 p.m. on Wednesday.

He said both parties agreed to keep the toll barriers up on all RFID lanes in Valenzuela City from “5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.” daily. 

The mayor said toll fees would still be collected during those hours.

For safety purposes, toll barriers will be down from 10:01 p.m. to 4:59 a.m., he added,

There would also be cash lanes in strategic locations at toll plazas.

Valenzuela City suspended the company’s business permit on Dec. 7, saying it should address issues on consumer, traffic, and RFID sticker installation and reloading.

SMC PLANS MORE RFID STATIONS
San Miguel Corp. (SMC) also announced on Wednesday its plan to operate a total of 156 RFID installation stations by year-end.

In an e-mailed statement, SMC said the installation stations would “make it easier for more motorists to migrate to the government-mandated electronic toll collection system.”

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

It said it had opened 42 new RFID installation stations “in the last two weeks, in addition to the 53 stations it had as of November.”

NLEX Corp. is under Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., a unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., which is one of the three Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd. The two others are PLDT, Inc. and Philex Mining Corp. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., maintains interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.

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