The fact that Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade eyed to award Mindanao Railway contract before the end of 2017 leads us hoping for construction to commence on Mindanao soil very soon. This project, a dream that existed for more than a decade already, will be materialized as the government vowed to assure Mindanao will experience drastic change when it comes to logistics and connectivity in the several years to come.
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) had already laid out priority plans and design according to Tugade. "The presentation with NEDA started. This has been placed on a fast track. The plans and design, the destination and origin are being laid out now." Tugade said as reported by Inquirer last September 2016. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia added the government plans to start the project this 2017 with completion expected beyond 2020.
Who's eager to fund the project by the way? Pernia said funding will not be a problem. "The money is not really a major consideration, because there are so many investors interested..." Pernia, who is also the Director-General of NEDA, said that the governments of China, Japan, and South Korea, and at least four local groups, namely Ayala Corp., Megawide Construction Corp., Metro Pacific Investment Corp., and San Miguel Corp., were interested in the project. But among three nations involved, Pernia said it was China which was very eager to finance the project. Hence, Philippines and China is about to sign a deal on Mindanao Railway this year.
It would be a government-to-government deal. Pernia said the project would be a combination of official development assistance (ODA) and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program. NEDA board will hold a meeting this year to discuss the project further.
There is no doubt to the popularity of Chinese technology. The fastest train in the world, the Shanghai Maglev, is built by them. The Chinese also contracted railway projects in Africa, Indonesia, Singapore, and even in the United States. However, this title that marked Chinese dominance on world's railway market is accompanied by bad publicity as well. It can be recalled that Singapore had returned substandard trains to China for repair last 2016. There were cracks in the structure linking the car body to the undercarriage, Financial Times reported.
China usually ends up offering the lowest bid. The state-owned railway construction company, CRCC, won railway bid both in Chicago and Boston in the United States being the lowest bidder. No wonder President Rodrigo Duterte himself acknowledge China's offer to build railways in the Philippines which includes Mindanao's first railway system.
The deal between the Philippines and China which would initiate construction will be signed this quarter. If no bidder will come out to gamble with a bid lower than that of the Chinese, then yes, we will have a Chinese railway.
Keep posted for more update regarding Mindanao Railway Project. We in MEB News will be keen on following the development of this long-delayed project.