SMC chair and CEO Ramon S. Ang said the company’s toll operations teams are coordinating closely with the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) to implement the President’s order.
“Our priority is to make sure responders get to affected communities as quickly as possible,” Ang said. “We have always worked with government in times of calamity. It’s part of our responsibility to help and to make sure aid reaches those who need it,” he added.
SMC said tollway personnel have been deployed across its expressways to assist emergency convoys and ensure their safe and unimpeded passage.
The company operates more than 200 kilometers of expressways in Luzon, including the Skyway System, South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), STAR Tollway, Tarlac–Pangasinan–La Union Expressway (TPLEX), and NAIA Expressway.
Ahead of Typhoon Uwan’s landfall, SMC deployed maintenance crews to inspect and clear drainage systems, secure roadside signages and billboards, and preposition quick-response teams and heavy equipment in flood-prone areas to keep expressways passable.
For more than a year during the pandemic, the company also waived over P230 million in toll fees for medical frontliners across all its expressways.
—Edited by Miguel R. Camus
