Infrastructure Researchers Urge Stripping TRB of Tollway Extension Powers

MANILA, Philippines — Infrastructure and transport advocates have urged government to strip the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) of its power to issue tollway extensions, saying its authority should be limited to regulating toll rates. In a study by several infrastructure and transport researchers, they said the local tollway network, both completed and planned, has grown to as much as P2.73 trillion to date. However, the study said toll projects granted through supplemental toll operation agreements (STOA), issued by the TRB, amounted to P766.81 billion. The researchers said it is necessary to strip the TRB’s power to grant STOA. Although the STOA is designed to extend the distance of an existing tollway, the study flagged multiple instances that it was used to approve large-scale projects. In 2022, toward the end of the Duterte administration, the TRB granted San Miguel Corp. (SMC) with a STOA for the 19.37-kilometer Pasig River Expressway (PAREX). The TRB said PAREX is an extension of SMC’s South Luzon Expressway. SMC bagged STOAs for three others: the 417-km SLEX Toll Road 5; 40.62-km Southern Access Link Expressway; and the 136-km Northern Access Link Expressway. The process was changed only when the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Code was amended in 2023, requiring tollways issued with STOAs to be subjected to a comparative challenge. Still, the researchers insisted that the TRB’s power should be reduced to setting toll rates, raising how its authority to grant STOA competes with the capacity of the Department of Public Works and Highways to process PPPs. “Accordingly, the powers and functions of the TRB should be reduced and limited to regulation of existing tollways and toll setting. It should no longer decide on development of new tollways or on STOA,” the study proposed. The researchers also warned of competition concerns given that Philippine tollways are operated largely by two developers: SMC (P1.2 trillion) and Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (P482 billion). The two are working toward a merger. In response, the researchers called on the Philippine Competition Commission to signal as early as now that it would block the proposed merger, citing industry concentration. The study was developed by researchers from commuter groups Ilog Pasiglahin, Make It Safer Movement and Move As One Coalition and academic institutions Ateneo de Manila University, Harvard Kennedy School and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa.