Metro Pacific Investments Corp. expects its tollway business to recover in the second half of the year as the government eases community quarantine in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. 

“Most likely the second quarter would be down compared to first quarter, but the trend starting late April and May and June nag recover na ang traffic and the revenues have gone up,” Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of MPIC said. 

“I think second half would be much better than the first half,” he added. 

Pangilinan said vehicle traffic at North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) went down by 10 percent compared to last yer. 

“We are optimistic that  it will return to normal maybe few more months, but not 100 percent,” he added. 

MPTC though its unit Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. operates NLEX, Manila-Cavite Expressway, Subic Clark-Tarlac Expressway and Cavity Laguna Expressway. 

Average daily vehicle entries on all four of our domestic tollways declined 6 percent to 479,860 in the first quarter of 2020 compared with 508,051 a year earlier. 

Domestic daily vehicle entries averaged 574,000 for the first two months of 2020, an increase of 14 percent over the same period last year but declined to 57,000 a day after the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) increasing to 115,000 in late 

April.

Despite severe operational challenges, our domestic tollroads have remained partially open to facilitate unhampered movement of essential goods and transit of frontline workers. 

Traffic on foreign tollroads also went down with the declaration of States of the Nation Emergency (SONE), with ADVE declining by 77 percent in Thailand, 55 percent in Indonesia and 20 percent in Vietnam.

MPTC recorded core net income of P900 million  for the first quarter of 2020, down 18 percent from P1.1 billion a year earlier as a result of lower traffic on all roads due to the implementation of the ECQ as well as higher interest costs on increased borrowings.