SMC apologizes over ETC disruption 

SMC Infrastructure 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 its electronic toll collection system.  

SM Infra said IT teams traced the source of the downtime to a cut in its 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," it said.

To help ease traffic congestion, SMC Infra deployed additional manpower to provide support for motorists. 

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It also opened affected toll plazas and waived toll fees. All in all, this covers around 84,000 vehicles that passed through the expressways from 6am to 2pm, 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. 

The company apologized for the inconvenience, and asked for motorists’ understanding, as it works to ensure that it delivers a high level of efficiency and reliability.