The Marcos administration should no longer pursue the planned loans from China to finance three big railway infrastructures under former president Rodrigo Duterte’s “Build, Build, Build” program, a lawmaker said on Sunday, July 17.
Former House deputy speaker Rufus Rodriguez cited “other funding options,” which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his administration should explore.
“The old saying ‘beggars cannot be choosers’ cannot apply to us in this case and other projects,” the Cagayan de Oro City’s 2nd district representative said in a statement.
“The problem with loans from China is that there will be strings attached which will sacrifice our full sovereign rights over our West Philippine Sea”, he added.
Last Friday, July 15, Transport Undersecretary for Railways Cesar Chavez announced the cancellation of the Chinese funding application for close to P300-billion ticket railway projects planned during the previous Duterte administration.
The affected projects are the first package of the Philippine National Railways-Bicol line, from Calamba in Laguna to Daraga, Albay, amounting to P142 billion; the P50-billion link between Clark Freeport Zone in Angeles City and Subic Freeport; and the P83-billion first phase of the Mindanao railway.
The lawmaker noted the alternative financing options for the Philippine government among which are World Bank, Asian Development, and the local banking and business community.
“We can request RSA (Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corp.), MVP (Manny Pangilinan of PLDT group), Enrique Razon (ICTSI) and Sabin Aboitiz (Aboitiz Group) to consider financing the Mindanao railway,” he said.
Rodriguez furthered the government could even use the annual national budget to undertake the projects.
“What is P83 billion for the people of Mindanao? We have a national budget of P5.2 trillion!”
He stressed that the use of government funds “will show potential funders here and abroad that we are serious about these and other mobility projects that will greatly benefit our people, railways being the cheapest mode to carry people and cargo to different destinations.”
Apart from these, he also mentioned the international assistance agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the European Union (EU) Fund.
Rodriguez said Beijing’s failure to approve the Duterte administration’s loan application that led to its withdrawal “shows that we cannot rely on our so-called Chinese friends.”