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MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is looking into possible financial support from the Public-Private Partnership Center (PPPC) and even the Indian government for a feasibility study on expanding the Mindanao railway project.
On Tuesday’s House Committee on Appropriations hearing on the DOTr’s proposed P167.12-billion budget for next year, Undersecretary for railways Cesar Chavez said that since there were zero funds for the Mindanao railway project, the agency had begun seeking out domestic and foreign funding for the priority project.
According to Chavez: “There’s no funding for the Mindanao railway project. The Duterte administration was supposed to submit a loan application for the Mindanao railway project.” The loan application for the project, P83 billion for the first phase, was withdrawn by the Department of Finance from state-run China Eximbank which did not act on the request.
Chavez informed the committee that within five days of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s State of the Nation Address, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista formally asked Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno to apply for funding for the Mindanao railway project.
“It is the Department of Finance (DOF) that applies [for] the loan, negotiates and signs the loan. The DoTr is only the implementing agency,” he pointed out, adding as far as funding goes, there was P6.5 billion set aside for the right of way in the railway project.
He further said that Bautista also wrote the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the DOF, the International Finance Corp. Worldbank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the Asian Development Bank to seek funding for the project.
Chavez said the DOTr sought P1.4 billion from the DBM for the feasibility study for the Mindanao railway project phases 1 and 2 which would traverse Digos City, Davao City, Tagum City, Butuan City, Cagayan de Oro City, Lanao del Norte and the Surigao provinces.
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