Meeting with NLEX won't automatically lift business permit suspension —Mayor Gatchalian

The meeting between the local government of Valenzuela City and the NLEX Corporation, the operator of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), on Monday would not automatically result in the lifting of the suspension of the latter's business permit.

Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian himself made the remark almost a week after he officially served the local government’s suspension of NLEX's business permit over the RFID mess that caused heavy traffic in the city.

"Hindi dahil magmi-meeting ay mali-lift [ang suspension ng business permit]," Gatchalian told Dobol B sa News TV in an interview on Sunday.

"In fact, ginagawa ito sa lahat ng nasu-suspend. Part ng due process na kung gusto nilang kausapin 'yung local government para maliwanagan 'yung mga rason bakit sila na-suspend,... ipapaliwanag namin," he added.

The local government's meeting with NLEX Corp. is set at 11 a.m. on Monday, with the former giving concrete solutions to the tollway operator on how to resolve the issue with RFID, Gatchalian said.

The meeting was supposed to take place on December 10, but it was postponed until Monday due to a supposed “threat” of the tollway operator to file a temporary restraining order against the suspension of its business permit. 

"Gagabayan natin sila, ano ba 'yung hinahanap ng lokal na pamahalaan na mga solusyon? Hindi man nila sundin 'yun, we'll give them constructive solutions," Gatchalian said.

"Tandaan natin, ang hinahanap natin dito ay solusyon. Pero hindi ibig sabihin na dahil nag-meeting ay mali-lift ang kanilang suspension," he added.

During the suspension of the business permit, motorists who will enter Valenzuela and exit through any open system or until the Marilao exit should not pay anything.

Meanwhile, motorists entering Valenzuela and exiting through any closed system or through exits from Ciudad de Victoria must not be charged the flat fee from the open system.

Gatchalian said his brother, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian who also resides in Valenzuela City, told him that the Senate will also open an investigation into the concession agreement between tollways and the national government.

"Nakapag-usap naman kami [Sherwin]. Sabi niya, sisiyasatin na rin nila, bubuksan na rin nila ang concession agreement para matukoy, meron bang violation or walang violation? But as far as the local government is concerned, sa business permit merong violation," he said.

"But as far as the local government is concerned, sa business permit merong violation," he added.

NLEX Corp. earlier said it would submit a concrete plan of action to the city government of Valenzuela to resolve issues on the implementation of RFID cashless payment scheme.

The said scheme took effect on December 1 in tollways, among them NLEX, as per an order of the Department of Transportation.

However, at NLEX, heavy traffic running for several kilometers was reported for days as motorists scrambled to have RFID stickers installed on their vehicles at NLEX toll plazas.

Some RFID cards were also not read properly by NLEX sensors, resulting in more bottleneck. —KG, GMA News