SMC Infrastructure, the infrastructure arm of the San Miguel Corporation whose current portfolio includes the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), TPLEX, NAIAx, and the Skyway Stage 3, among others, released a statement after major traffic jams were caused by the network outage of its electronic collection system (ETC) on Thursday, November 17, 2022. To help ease the congestion, the company opened affected toll plazas and waived toll fees for vehicles that passed thru the expressways from 6 am to 2 pm. Accounts that were charged during this period should expect a refund back to their AutoSweep accounts.
Below is the entire statement:
STATEMENT FROM SMC INFRASTRUCTURE
SMC Infra waives toll fees for 84k vehicles affected by ETC network disruption
SMC Infrastructure sincerely apologizes to all motorists affected by traffic jams along portions of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), Skyway, NAIAx and STAR Tollway this morning, resulting from a momentary network outage in our electronic toll collection system.
Our IT teams traced the source of the downtime to a cut in our fiber optic network. We are still determining the root cause of the damage, but there are indications that a major vehicular accident may have contributed to the situation.
To help ease traffic congestion, we deployed additional manpower to provide support for motorists.
We also opened affected toll plazas and waived toll fees. All in all, this covers around 84,000 vehicles that passed through the expressways from 6 am to 2 pm, Thursday, November 17.
This includes motorists whose ETC accounts were deducted upon entry; they will receive electronic refunds in their Autosweep accounts. While the system was restored around 9 am, we decided to keep barriers at toll plazas up, to enable all affected motorists to pass through for free.
Again, we apologize for the inconvenience, and ask for our motorists’ understanding, as we work to ensure that we deliver the same high level of efficiency and reliability they have come to expect from us, at all times.