The toll holiday will apply to all SMC-operated expressways, including the Skyway System, NAIA Expressway (NAIAX), South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), STAR Tollway and the Tarlac–Pangasinan–La Union Expressway (TPLEX).

Tolls will be waived from 10:00 p.m. on Dec. 24 until 6:00 a.m. on Dec. 25, and from 10:00 p.m. on Dec. 31 until 6:00 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2026, the company said.

SMC said the toll waiver is intended to benefit motorists traveling late at night to reach their families during the holiday season.

SMC Infrastructure, the company’s infrastructure arm, said safety and security personnel have been placed on heightened alert, alongside measures to manage the expected surge in traffic during the holidays.

Beginning noon on Dec. 20, additional patrol and security personnel were deployed in critical areas, while emergency response teams were placed on standby to ensure the swift clearing of road obstructions.

Traffic monitoring centers across SMC-operated expressways are operating 24/7 to track traffic conditions and coordinate with emergency responders.

To help ease congestion, roadworks that may affect traffic flow have been suspended from Dec. 20 until Jan. 4, 2026.

Tow trucks and other emergency vehicles have also been positioned at strategic locations to ensure faster response to incidents.

SMC Infrastructure advised motorists to plan their trips ahead, allow extra travel time and ensure sufficient balance in their Autosweep accounts to avoid delays at toll plazas.

The company added it has coordinated with local government units and national agencies to help manage traffic on public roads connecting to the expressways.

SMC Chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang said the company is closely coordinating with the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) to facilitate the toll-free access.

“Our priority is to make sure responders reach affected communities as quickly as possible,” Ang said. “We have always worked with government in times of calamity—it’s part of our duty to help ensure aid gets to those who need it the most.”

SMC has deployed tollway personnel across its expressways to guide emergency convoys and guarantee their safe passage.

SMC Infrastructure operates over 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 dispatched maintenance teams to inspect and clear drainage systems, secure roadside signages, and preposition quick-response units and heavy equipment in flood-prone areas to keep expressways open and safe.

The company also reminded motorists to observe traffic rules and speed limits, and to drive with caution amid adverse weather conditions.

SMC has a long-standing record of supporting national emergency efforts. During the height of the pandemic, it waived over ₱230 million in toll fees for medical frontliners across all its expressways.

The company said it has put in place traffic management plans for its tollways, namely the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR), South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), the Skyway System, NAIA Expressway, and the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), and coordinated this with various local government units.

The company said it anticipates heavy traffic particularly at interchanges linking its tollways to national highways and other expressways, and has advised motorists to plan their trips well for the upcoming holidays.

“Our instruction to our operations personnel is to make sure that our traffic management plans are in sync with the different towns and cities so that traffic flows smoothly along public roads. When public roads are congested, motorists along our carriageways are also affected as traffic can extend to the exits and onto the main line,” explained SMC chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang.

“We hope that through close and constant collaboration with traffic management teams of LGUs, we can help reduce traffic buildups especially at critical points of convergence within our towns and cities,” he added.

The company’s contingency measures include increasing the deployment of tollway personnel such as patrollers and emergency responders, to assist those in need.

It also reminded motorists of measures they can take to contribute to the overall improvement of the traffic situation along expressways. This includes ensuring their Autosweep RFID accounts are topped, to avoid unnecessary queueing at toll plazas. Reloading Autosweep RFID accounts is widely available through online banking apps, e-wallets, over-the-counter desks, and payment kiosks.

For motorists who have yet to register for an Autosweep RFID account, the company reiterated that stickers remain free of charge, and users can load the exact amount of toll they will use. Replacement of stickers which have deteriorated over time also remain free of charge.

The company also advised cash-paying motorists to switch to Autosweep RFID electronic toll collection, as this is a much faster, more convenient method of payment that also contributes to shorter queueing times at toll plazas.

Meanwhile, SMC Infrastructure stopped all roadworks and construction activities at expressways to help ensure traffic flow will not be disrupted. This started 12:00 PM of Friday, April 11, and will end at 10:00 PM of Monday, April 21.

Further enhancing Holy Week preparations on major expressways is Petron Corporation’s Lakbay Alalay program, the country’s longest-running motorist assistance initiative.

Petron will provide free motorist assistance, clean restrooms, and limited freebies from brand partners at Petron Marilao (NLEX), Petron San Pedro (SLEX), and Petron TPLEX northbound on April 16 and 17.

On April 20, Lakbay Alalay will be at Petron Bocaue (NLEX), Petron KM 44 northbound, and TPLEX southbound

To help mitigate any other possible delays to their trips, SMC Infrastructure also called on motorists to ensure their vehicles are roadworthy, with tires properly inflated and engines thoroughly checked before traveling.

Motorists are also reminded to adhere to speed limits along expressways, as well as to keep a safe braking distance, and to always wear their seatbelts.

SMC’s at-grade or ground-level expressways have a maximum speed limit of 100 kph for Class 1 vehicles, and 80 kph for Classes 2 and 3 vehicles. Elevated expressways such as the Skyway System and NAIA Expressway have a maximum speed limit of 80 kph, except at curved portions of the carriageway which have a 60 kph speed limit for safety reasons.

This includes close coordination with the Toll Regulatory Board, local government units, and other relevant agencies to optimize traffic flow.

“Our toll operations teams have prepared for the expected surge in traffic volume at our expressways starting Thursday, Oct. 31. Emergency services such as fire trucks, ambulances, and tow trucks are already on standby to provide immediate assistance to distressed motorists,” the company said.

“We appeal to our motorists to make sure their vehicles are in good condition prior to traveling, so they can avoid any mishaps or cause delay for others,” it added.

The company will impose a moratorium on roadworks, including maintenance and other related activities that may impede the flow of vehicular traffic, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 5.

Additional personnel will be deployed to help manage traffic bottlenecks, including at entry and exit toll plazas that connect local roads to expressways.

To further minimize possible causes of delays at the tollways, SMC Infrastructure is reminding motorists to make sure their Autosweep accounts have sufficient load. Their cards must be ready in their vehicles should these be needed.

The company reiterated its appeal for motorists to update their account information, particularly those who have Autosweep-To-Go accounts via the Autosweep website, (www.autosweeprfid.com/v4/web), where they simply need to enter their correct details.

To pass through toll plazas more quickly, SMC Infrastructure advises motorists to avoid tailgating so that RFID readers can scan the Autosweep tags properly. Also, RFID stickers should be clean and not defective. If needed, these may be replaced for free at various toll plazas.

On road safety, motorists are reminded to ensure that their vehicles are roadworthy and that they observe all traffic rules at all times, especially speed limits and the wearing of seatbelts.

Should motorists encounter emergencies or vehicle trouble, they should slow down to a stop at lay-bys, or seek assistance at select Petron stations.

For emergency assistance at the expressways, call:

o   SLEX Hotline: 09176877539

o   TPLEX Hotline: 09178880715

o   STAR Hotlines: 09175117827 / 043-7567870

o   Skyway Hotline: 02-53188655

With the plan to comply with 100% cashless electronic toll collection for the motorists, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) announced that both the Skyway and the South Luzon Expressway has increased to 85%, despite the continuing availability of cash lanes, as government has yet to fully implement its mandate of 100% cashless transactions at all expressways.    

SMC, which operates the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR), South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), the Skyway System, NAIA Expressway, and the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), said the higher utilization of Autosweep RFID toll collection has significantly improved traffic throughput at its toll plazas.  

“Since December, and even through January and February, there has been a big improvement in traffic throughput at almost all our toll plazas, as majority of motorists have followed government’s safety protocol of using electronic toll collection. We’re no longer seeing the kind of lines we used to have when majority of motorists were using cash payments,” said SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang.   

“So apart from minimizing the risk of spreading COVID-19, especially now that there are new variants, the cashless system is also providing more convenience and ease of travel for motorists, especially now that more people are coming back to work and the economy is reopening gradually. This is definitely a big benefit to motorists,” Ang added.  

The government’s mandate to shift to fully cashless was supposed to take full effect last January 11. This has been deferred to allow more motorists, particularly non-regular users of tollways and those living in far-off provinces, ample time to avail of free RFID stickers. As such, cash lanes are still available at expressways.  

Ang however shared that at major toll plazas such as the Calamba toll gate, where there are still a large volume of motorists using cash, traffic congestion continues to be a regular occurrence in the area, as the buildup of cash motorists tend to block RFID users.

There has also been a significant number of cases where RFID motorists with no load or insufficient load balance repeatedly use the electronic payment collection (ETC) lanes–holding up other motorists and causing traffic.  

Recently, the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) announced a plan to implement a “Three-Strike Policy” for erring motorists who use ETC lanes with insufficient load credits. The Department of Transportation (DoTR) and TRB are expected to release the policy’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR) soon.   

According to DOTr Undersecretary Garry de Guzman, who has been appointed as alternate TRB chairman by DOTr Sec. Arthur Tugade, the policy is aimed at eliminating disruption at the toll lanes and avoiding inconvenience for compliant RFID users.  

Under the three-strike policy, erring motorists will receive a reminder to load for the first offense, a warning for the second offense, and apprehension and pre-COVID penalties for those who commit the offense for the third time.   

Ang said that the company will comply with TRB’s new policy as its system is able to monitor repeat offenders.  He also assured existing RFID users even more convenience in reloading and monitoring their Autosweep accounts.    

Motorists can either top up or reload at any of the Autosweep Point-of-Sales, SMC Toll Gates, and accredited Merchant Reloading partners across the whole Luzon area.   

Over-the-counter reloading is available at popular retail outlets, including Petron Treats, Savemore, SM Bills Pay and SM Business Services; SM Hypermarket, Waltermart, 7-Eleven, Shopwise and Shopwise Express, Family Mart, Rustan’s, Robinsons Department Store and Robinson’s Supermarkets; The Marketplace, Wellcome supermarket, as well as payments centers Expresspay, Tambunting, LBC, Bayad Centers, and RD pawnshops.   

Online reloading is also available, through partner banks Bank of Commerce, BPI, Union Bank, China Bank, Maybank, and popular gateways G-Cash, Pay Maya, Eon, Coins.ph, and Justpay.To. Self-service reloading is also available via Touchpay, ECPay, and E-Tap.  

SMC tollways STAR, SLEX, Skyway, NAIAX and TPLEX also continue to provide a lane for cash-paying motorists at its toll plazas, but this will only continue only until the DOTr imposes the full Cashless Program.  

Also, as of February 16, SMC was operating 160 Autosweep RFID stickering stations across different locations, from its own Autosweep RFID Center officers, toll plaza, malls, government offices, transport terminal hubs, and car dealerships.  

“With all these efforts, I hope our motorists will find it much easier to comply with government mandate and shift to the much safer and faster system of electronic toll collection. We will continue to work to make necessary adjustments and improvements to support government initiatives and ensure that motorists will have better, safer journeys on our expressways,” Ang said.

As part of the holiday tradition, San Miguel Corporation, through its infrastructure arm, is waiving all toll fees at its expressways for Christmas and New Year.

Covered will be the major southern tollways Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR), Southern Luzon Expressway (SLEX), Skyway, NAIA Expressway, and also the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway in the north. 

SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang said the “toll holiday” initiative is a yearly tradition for the company to grant motorists temporary free access to the expressways, to celebrate the holidays. “From 10:00 pm on December 24 to 6:00 am on December 25 we will open all our expressways—STAR, SLEX, Skyway, NAIAX, TPLEX–for free to all motorists.

We are doing the same from 10:00 pm on December 31, to 6:00 am on January 1. This is an annual tradition that we do for the benefit of motorists, especially those who have to see family in other parts of the city or have to go home to the provinces,” Ang said.

Ang added that in previous years, many motorists would use the opportunity to travel and spend time with family, friends, and loved ones from other parts of the city or nearby provinces. “This year will be no exception, we’re still implementing the toll holiday, although because of the pandemic, we know we are all asked to minimize contact with others outside our immediate families. But we still thought to open the expressways because it has become part of our commitment to motorists, and a way for us to give a little Christmas cheer,” he said. 

“For those who do have a reason, or an urgent need to travel on the expressways on Christmas and New Year’s, we hope you appreciate and enjoy this toll holiday and pass on a small act of kindness to others. Any positive thing you do for others will go a long way, especially during these times” Ang added.

Aware of the clamor and demand of the public to shift in cashless collections, San Miguel Corporation (SMC), operator of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR), Skyway, NAIA Expressway, and the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), is targeting to operate a total of 156 RFID installation stations by the end of December to make it easier for more motorists to migrate to the government-mandated electronic toll collection system. 

Already, SMC reported opening a total of 42 new stations in the last two weeks, in addition to the 53 stations it had as of November, bringing the current total to 95 stations.  

SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang said: “We’re glad to report that we are on track to deliver on our promise to open 100 additional RFID stations. In fact, it will be a little more than that. Our bulk orders of RFID tags from abroad have been arriving as scheduled, so we’ve also been able to gradually open more stations—42 new ones as of the last count. An additional 61 outlets, mostly off-site, are in process and we will open all of these by end of December,” Ang said.  

Ang said that currently, most of the active stations are located at its expressways, namely STAR, SLEX, Skyway, NAIAx, and TPLEX, with others located at gas stations, customer service centers, and transport terminals.   

But in order to provide convenience to even more motorists, especially non-frequent users of SMC’s expressways, he said that nearly all of the 61 remaining outlets to be opened will be located outside the expressways.   

These include new installation stations at more gas stations, transport terminals, malls, home builder complexes, local government offices, Land Transportation Office (LTO) facilities, churches, and major arenas.  These are on top of its Autosweep RFID caravan program, where wing vans will be deployed to barangays and villages to conduct stickering activities.   

“We hear the clamor from the public to make RFID installation even more accessible. We hope that these efforts will help make it easier for more people to avail themselves of their free RFID stickers. We will continue to evaluate our efforts and put in place all the improvements and adjustments necessary to make it better for everyone,” Ang said.  

Ang added that apart from increasing the number of installation stations, the company will also maintain one cash lane per toll plaza, so vehicles with no RFID stickers may still be allowed entry and given their Autosweep stickers. This is to help prevent traffic congestion at its toll plazas.   

Ang also highlighted that SMC’s Autosweep system, used in STAR, SLEX, Skyway, NAIAX, and TPLEX, has a 98% read rate and a detection range of up to five meters–resulting in faster and more reliable throughput at toll plazas.  

The system is also equipped with “real-time” loading, which means that even if a motorist is only able to load shortly before entering the toll plaza, the load will be credited in real-time, further minimizing delays and traffic congestion. 

Last December 1, on the first day of implementation of fully cashless transactions, SMC reported that there were no major traffic gridlocks at its expressways STAR, SLEX, SKWAY, NAIAX, and TPLEX.