A proposal to put up a farm-to-market railway along the existing rail line of the Philippine National Railway was broached by AirSpeed of SM Investments Corp. and the Federation of Free Farmers, which is supported by Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista and Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr.
Bautista and Tiu-Laurel “ardently support this (the proposal) and gave a letter to the Public-Private Partnership Center to evaluate the consortium’s proposal. Once the PPP Center is done in its evaluation, it will be endorsed again to the DOTr and we can proceed with it,” said Francis Yuseco, CEO of the Philippine Trackway Corp., reported the Daily Tribune.
The farm to market Digital Logistics Integrated Backbone (FM-DLIB), to be funded by $5 billion from Hasdaq Financial Holdings Group, is said to be important on the logistics side, especially the plan to put food hubs, cold storage facilities and provide post-harvest equipment at the PNR elevated train system,” said DA Assistant Secretary Dannie Atayde, a plan conceptualized by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) way back.
“To be efficient, agricultural products should be put near the transport area to be able to distribute the products directly to the consumers and to help the farmers. We can discuss more and plan it right and we look forward to this,” Atayde said.
FM-DLIB’s main proponent, Philippine Trackway Corp. (Philtrak) headed by its CEO Francis Yuseco, plans to build the railway system together with consortium members Leechiu Property Consultants Inc., Del Monte Motor Works Inc. and DLTB Bus.
The plan has been pitched in 2022.
The FM-DLIB uses DOST’s electric road train technology at the old, decommissioned Panay Railways Inc. train line.
The proposal is backed by a $5-billion funding pledged by United States-based venture capital Hasdaq Financial Holdings Group.
Yuseco said the mission and vision of FM-DLIB is to ensure that the decommissioned, unsustainable, bankrupt, subsidy-dependent and draining railways, considered patrimonial assets, are reengineered for the best, optimal and widest use for the greatest number of Filipinos.
“Thus, per our MoU (memorandum of understanding) with the 38-year-old decommissioned Panay Railways with our DoST, we will re-engineer the Panay Railways into a powerful Daily Cash Machine. Currently, 90 percent of the Philippine National Railways (PNR), has also been decommissioned for over 30 years,” he said.
The FM-DLIB will be built along the elevated, double-track and electrified train system of the PNR’s existing rail line from Alabang to Calamba.
As the FM-DLIB is seen to benefit farmers for the easy transport of their yields to consumers and markets, Yuseco said farmers and fisherfolks will be able to increase their income by 400 percent, while food prices will decrease by about 40 percent benefiting the majority of the consumers.
Asked when the FM-DLIB will commence construction, Yuseco said in three months.
Direct route to markets
Earlier, FFF chairman Leonardo Montemayor said Tiu-Laurel vowed to support FM-DLIB, as the project is deemed to help farmers and fishers transport their produce directly to urban markets, thus increasing their incomes and making food more affordable to consumers.
In December 2022, the Star reported that the consortium that had proposed the conversion of the idle Panay railway into an electric road train (ERT) is reviving its offer but on a broader scale with the inclusion of three more areas.
The revised project– which originally covered Panay Island– will now stretch to Pangasinan, Batangas and Marawi City.
Filipino engineers from the DOST Metals Industry Research and Development Center used locally available parts to design the ERT “buses” and technology, which is seen as a viable option to ease mass transport problems in congested urban centers such as Metro Manila and Cebu, the Star reported in December 2022.
The DOST and Philtrak signed a memorandum of understanding in 2018 to rehabilitate and convert the 37-year old decommissioned railway into the FM DLIB, but the onset of the pandemic momentarily halted the project.
But as pandemic restrictions eased in February 2021, Yuseco said the Batangas provincial government reached out to Philtrak, expressing its intent to rehabilitate and convert the 35-year-old decommissioned PNR spur line from Calamba City, Laguna to Batangas City into the FM DLIB.
Pangasinan and Marawi similarly asked Philtrak to be included in the FM DLIB master plan.
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