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Solon to gov’t: Beggars can be choosers

July 18, 2022 Jester P. Manalastas 273 views

A House leader urged President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and his economic team to totally drop the application for Chinese financing on three big railway infrastructures planned by the former administration.

Deputy Speaker and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said there are other options which the government can consider.

“The old saying ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ cannot apply to us in this case and other projects. We have other funding options, which the new national leadership should explore,” Rodriguez said.

He said such options include multilateral institutions like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, international assistance agencies such as the US AID, JICA of Japan, Korean agency and EU Fund, the local banking and business community and even the annual national budget.

“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,” Rodriguez added.

Rodriguez expressed sadness over the decision of the previous government to discontinue the three railway projects specially the first Phase of the Mindanao railway “that have been six years in the making.”

“Sad especially for Mindanao, the home region of our former president. Our island deserves its first railway system,” he said.

He said the failure of Beijing to approve the Duterte administration’s loan application prompting the latter to withdraw it, “shows that we cannot rely on our so-called Chinese friends.”

The affected projects are the first package of the Philippine National Railways-Bicol line, from Calamba in Laguna to Daraga, Albay, with a cost of P142 billion; the 71-kilometer, P50-billion link between Clark Freeport Zone in Angeles City and Subic Freeport; and the P83-billion first phase of the Mindanao railway covering 102 kilometers.

Rodriguez said the Marcos administration could ask the international financial institutions and even our private business community to finance these infrastructures.

“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 suggested.

Also, 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 added.

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.”