Before Marcos’ term ends, three railway projects are seen to completed.
Before President Marcos Jr.'s term ends in 2028, three big-ticket railway projects could be “substantially completed.” Thus stated Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista.
These projects are the Subic-Clark Railway Project, the Philippine National Railways South Long-Haul Project, and the Davao-Digos segment of the Mindanao Railway Project, Inquirer reported.
“Six years may not be enough, but I think if we start it and we do it right, we should be able to substantially complete the project before the term of President Marcos ends,” Bautista said.
The three said projects were to be funded under China’s official development assistance (ODA) through loan agreements between the governments of the Republic of the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China and were meant to be Rodrigo Duterte's legacy.
The government, however, later scrapped the loan deals.
Chavez said that the loan agreements on the said projects are now considered “withdrawn” after the Chinese government failed to act on the funding requests by the former Duterte administration.
“There was a policy discussion on three China ODA rail projects in last Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting which the President commented that as a matter of policy, we should encourage more investments in rail and that we should focus more on rail transport,” Chavez said.
The development of the projects was slowed down by the interest rate among other factors, Bautista opined.
China’s interest rate is 3 percent, while Japan’s is at 0.01 percent.
“I think one of the issues that really stalled the project is the interest rate of loans,” said Bautista.
As an alternative to China, they may also think about collaborating with Japan, said Bautista.
Senators stated their preference for Japan over China for the three rail projects due to the former's cheaper interest rate.
Tags: #Railways, #DOTr, #China