by Mary Lynroe Francisco
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is eyeing for the reconciliation of the unofficial terminated negotiations between China and the Philippines to fund the three big railway projects in the country, as well as a public-private partnership (PPP).
According to Department of Transportation (DOTr) Undersecretary Cesar Chaves, China failed to act on loan financing requests since 2019, which were considered withdrawn.
The Subic-Clark Railway Project worth P142-billion, Philippine National Railways South Long-Haul Project worth P51 billion, and the Mindanao Railway Project’s Davao-Digos segment worth P83 billion are the three big railway projects in the country that are supposedly financed by China.
The Chinese embassy in the Philippines released a statement on Monday, July 18, that “China will tap its own advantage and support the Philippines to improve its infrastructure.”
“China is open for technical discussions over our G-to-G projects, and is ready to carry our cooperation forward, in close communication with the Philippine new administration,” the spokesperson added.
Meanwhile, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda encouraged President Marcos to find an alternative way to fund the Calamba-Bicol railway route of PNR South long haul which will be a big help for the Bicolanos.
According to Salceda, there are some countries who have lower interest rates such as Japan at only 0.1% per annum compared to China’s 3% offer per annum for the said project.
“Of course, the Chinese yuan is generally a more stable currency than the Japanese yen, but factoring exchange rate parity, the Japanese offer would still be significantly more attractive, by around 2.5 percentage points, even taking the worst peso performance versus the yen and the best peso performance versus the yuan,” he said. -ngs
