It’s Holy Week again, and while most city dwellers have already filed their leaves and left for their respective provinces, a good chunk of people are still about to head home for the holidays. And this means heavy traffic and many hassles along the road.

Thankfully, SMC Infrastructure and Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation have already laid out their plans to help ease the burden of those leaving the city for a bit. Here are their respective programs.

SMC Infrastructure will implement traffic management plans for the tollways it manages, namely the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road Tollway (STAR), the Skyway System (Skyway and Skyway Stage 3), the NAIA Expressway, and the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX). It has coordinated with the various local government units to ensure these plans will work better.

It will deploy more patrollers and emergency responders to help manage traffic and respond to accidents. Additional toll collection personnel, including ambulant tellers, will be present at toll plazas to speed up the flow of those exiting the expressways.

Another company from the SMC umbrella, Petron, will conduct its “Lakbay Alalay” program—the longest-running motorist assistance initiative. Other than free motorist assistance, its service stations have clean restrooms for travelers. 

Furthermore, limited freebies will be given away courtesy of other brand partners. These booths will be available at the following Petron stations on these dates:

April 16-17

• Marilao (NLEX)
• San Pedro (SLEX)
• TPLEX northbound

April 20

• Bocaue (NLEX)
• Km44 northbound (SLEX)
• TPLEX southbound

Meanwhile, MPTC—operators of North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), NLEX Connector Road, Manila-Cavite Expressway (CAVITEX), Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX), and Cebu-Cordova Expressway (CCLEX)—will be rolling out its “Biyaheng Arangkada, Semana Santa” program. This will run on April 16-21.

MPTC will provide “enhanced assistance services,” which include the following:

• Provide round-the-clock on-call assistance services for roadside emergencies (1-35000) and the MPT DriveHub app
• Strategically positioned roadside assistance stations along the tollways
• Deployment of more than 2,000 personnel to manage traffic flow and provide swift accident response
• Free on-call emergency medical services
• Free basic mechanical service at select rest and refuel stations, which includes basic mechanical checks and minor repairs
• Free towing services at the nearest exit for Class 1 and Class 1M (for CCLEX) in case of vehicle breakdowns
• Deploy Easytrip RFID Services On-Ground in various locations to facilitate RFID installation, reloading, and other account inquiries
• Free Internet access (free Wi-Fi provided by Smart) and complimentary drinking water (courtesy of Maynilad) at participating rest and refuel stations, as well as motorist camps
• Free health and wellness consultation (provided by MWell) at select NLEX rest and refuel stations
• Free EV charging stations (provided by ACMobility) in select areas along NLEX

The “Biyaheng Arangkada, Semana Santa” program will run on the following MPTC-operated tollways on these dates:

April 9 (6am) to 14 (6am)

• NLEX
• SCTEX
• CALAX
• CCLEX
• NLEX Connector

April 16 (6am) to 21 (6am)

• CAVITEX

But both toll operators have reminded travelers to perform pre-trip checks (aka BLOWBAGETS) on their vehicles, and properly reload their RFID accounts (or have RFID tags installed on vehicles) to ensure smooth and trouble-free trips this Holy Week.