Bulacan business leaders want gov’t to pursue rail project for Central Luzon

CITY OF MALOLOS—Business leaders in Bulacan have asked the government to pursue the NorthRail or implement another railway project that will link Central Luzon to Metro Manila because, they said, this is vital to the region’s progress.

Rene Simbulan, chairman emeritus of the Bulacan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), said a railway project for Central Luzon would not only make the region the country’s next growth center but would help decongest Metro Manila and Southern Luzon.

The Chinese-funded NorthRail project had been suspended due to its high cost and various contractual problems, including right of way acquisition.

Recently, the Chinese government had asked the Philippine government to pay the $500 million it had released for the project.

In a report to the Subic-Clark Alliance for Development, North Luzon Railways Corp. said that as of July 2011, Phase 1, Section 1, of the NorthRail (31.93 kilometers from Caloocan City to the City of Malolos in Bulacan) was only 22.94-percent finished due to problems of right-of-way and other claims.

In January, then Transportation and Communication Secretary Mar Roxas said negotiations were ongoing for the unwinding of the contract of Sinomach, the Chinese contractor of NorthRail.

He said what Sinomach had built from Caloocan to Malolos was only 10 percent of what was stipulated in the contract agreed upon during the administration of President Macapagal-Arroyo.

Roxas said a new high-speed rail project in place of NorthRail that would link the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the Clark International Airport would cost about $2 billion.

Simbulan urged the government not to commit another mistake by dropping a high-speed railway project for the region.

“I understand there’s already an advance finance in the form of a loan our government had transacted with that Chinese company. Our government cannot escape paying its obligation for that loan. And if the project will not be pursued, our taxes will go to nothing, [it will be] wasted,” he said.

Simbulan said it has always been the clamor of the BCCI, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the North Luzon Area Business Conference for Aquino to find ways to implement the project.

“[We hope] they can renegotiate with China or other interested foreign loan providers or a Filipino [contractor] before making a bold decision to scrap it. We are hoping the President will take another look at this and we hope the project will resume and be completed,” he said.  Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon