Solons eye toll-free Baguio-Bontoc Halsema Highway

Fancy a trip past Baguio and further north nowadays? We have some news that might make that planned trip faster and more relaxing, on the pocket that is. 

Introduced by Representatives Maximo, JR. Y. Dalog and Eric Go Yap, House Bill 1047 and 1048 will do just that. Both bills propose to remove the toll fees along Kennon Road namely Klondyke’s Spring to Camp 6 and the Baguio-Bontoc Halsema Highway National Toll Road which has three toll gates found in Camps 1 and 6 both in Tuba, Benguet along Kennon, and the third one in Acop, Tublay, Benguet along the Halsema Highway.

Once the bill is passed, it will speed up the travel further north, and allow vehicles a hassle-free drive without having to worry about toll fees. In turn, this may also have a good effect on produce prices as they may be brought down faster to the city and eventually to the whole of the metro.   

As Baguio is one of the most popular tourist hot spots, the local government unit started to put fees on roads to try and decongest the city as it opened up to tourists after the pandemic. Right now, the Baguio City council has proposed putting a congestion charge per tourist when entering the city of pines. The so-called congestion fee is one of the solutions along with the revival of the Hop-On, Hop-Off aka HOHO buses. 

Should the toll fees be removed, the drive further north and back should become a breeze to tourists while helping local farmers reduce the expenses they have to pay for while driving their produce down to the city.