By MARYA SALAMAT
“The TRB decision approving the automatic increase in toll fee rates every two years should be scrapped.” – Taxpayers Unity vs Toll Fee Hike
After 2011 toll fee hikes, toll operators report increased profits
Tags: SLEX
VAT on toll fees, a precedent for all public services under PPPs
By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com MANILA – It is bad enough that the Philippine government has been ceding to the private sector the operation of vital public services such as major highways, turning its operation into a business instead of a public service. What is also worrisome even for authors and consultants to the crafting of…
Malacañang should stop VAT on toll in wake of Typhoon Pedring
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com After typhoon Pedring hit the country hard comes the Aquino government’s imposition of a 12 percent value-added tax on toll fees. The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) is demanding anew that Malacañang drops all its plans to impose the VAT on toll fees, saying that the public is still reeling…
TRB postpones implementation of VAT on toll fees, BIR disagrees
By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com MANILA – Amid protests over what progressive groups call as “bogus public hearings” conducted by the Toll Regulatory Board this week over the planned imposition of the 12-percent Value-Added Tax (VAT) on toll fees, which it would pass on to motorists, the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) announced yesterday they may not…
VAT on toll fees, questionable toll rates opposed
By MARYA SALAMAT
“The Aquino government should not treat our expressways like a milking cow; it should recognize it as a form of social service to the public.” TUTOL-SLEX
What Now for Commuters from the South?
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL Bulatlat.com MANILA – I live in the south of Manila. I travel to work in Quezon City for at least two hours. I am also one of the million passengers of the MRT. While the tollways in the south have already increased their toll fees, the MRT fares are about…
Dire Times Ahead: Poor Brace for Impact of Toll, Fare, Price Increases
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Shirley Pascua, 35, a housewife, thinks that the poor are getting poorer under the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III. “He is proving to be a disappointment. The price of everything is going up,” she told Bulatlat.com.
Aquino Disappoints on Toll Hike but That’s Not a Surprise
“I see nothing wrong if President Aquino wants to honor the Philippine government’s commitments to foreign investors, but what about his commitments to the Filipino people?”
Apart from ‘Shocking’ 300% Toll-Fee Hike, Philippines Has to Account for Dramatic Jump in SLEX Project Cost
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
From an initial P4 billion in 2006, the cost of expanding and improving the South Luzon Expressway jumped dramatically to P12.5 billion by last year. This is being used to justify the increase in toll fees – an imposition that many view as not only patently anti-poor but the result as well of “evident corruption.”
Sidebar: Aquino Disappoints on Toll Hike but That’s Not a Surprise
Critics Condemn the TRB’s ‘Lies, Treachery and Betrayal’ in Hastily Approving 300% Toll-Fee Hikes
By MARYA SALAMAT
“The TRB cannot even tell us how the toll rates were computed. What was the basis for the computation of the toll rates? These questions must be answered first before they raise the toll fees,” said Northern Samar governor Paul Daza, co-convenor of the TUTOL-SLEX.
Hikes in Toll Fees, Mass Transit Fares a Consequence of Public-Private Partnerships
By MARYA SALAMAT
President Benigno Aquino III boldly declared during his first State of the Nation Address that public-private partnerships would be the solution to the government’s lack of funds and the need to develop the country’s infrastructure. But at whose expense?