Apart from ‘Shocking’ 300% Toll-Fee Hike, Philippines Has to Account for Dramatic Jump in SLEX Project Cost

Apart from ‘Shocking’ 300% Toll-Fee Hike, Philippines Has to Account for Dramatic Jump in SLEX Project Cost

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.”

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — It’s not just the exorbitant toll-fee increase, it’s the project itself that’s anomalous.

Last January 7, anti-corruption advocate and lawyer Ernesto Francisco filed a formal request for investigation with the Office of the Ombudsman on the issue of the 300-percent toll hike at the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX). According to Francisco, the South Luzon Toll Corp., which operates the expressway, is using the multibillion project cost for the expansion and improvement of the expressway as a reason for raising toll fees. The projected cost is the primary basis for the 300-percent toll hike.

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