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| Southeast Asia | |
| Derailed: China-funded project stalls, becomes burden for southern Philippine residents | |
| 2022-08-28 | |
The U.S. $1.5 billion first phase of the Mindanao Railway Project is now dead in its tracks after Manila announced last month that it had canceled a Chinese loan deal for it, citing Beijing’s longtime inaction on Philippine funding requests. The finance department also said that Beijing was asking for interest rates higher than 3 percent — terms that were unfavorable to Manila. But in 2018, two years after the government unveiled the project to great fanfare, it set about acquiring land to build the first phase’s 105-kilometer line between the provinces of Davao del Norte and Davao del Sur that, when completed, would cut travel time to just over an hour from 3.5 hours. Ricky Tabay, a 52-year-old resident of Davao City, was told he had to give up a 7000-square-foot piece of land that he and his siblings had inherited from their father so the Mudiang Station, a stop on the Tagum-Davao-Digos segment of the railway, could be constructed. "These people from the government were here and told us to secure the [document] requirements because if we did not sell our lands, they would be forcibly taken away by the government," Tabay, who works as a meat vendor, told BenarNews recently during an interview at his ancestral house. Left with no option, Tabay and his eight siblings together borrowed at least $1,000 to process the land’s documents, as the government required. Last month, when he went to submit the documents to the transportation office in Davao City, he was told the project had been cancelled. "Now we don’t know what’s next. How can we pay for the money we borrowed?" Tabay said, adding that his siblings had to take up menial jobs to contribute to the expenses for processing the documents. BenarNews asked the Chinese Embassy in Manila why Beijing had not approved the Philippines’ loan application. "[T]here is no such thing that China did not approve the loan application for the Mindanao Railway project," the embassy said in an email. "Teams from both sides will work closely to move this project forward." ‘WAITING FOR NOTHING’ Like the Tabays, other residents have been left angry and confused, after what they were told was the cancelation of the much-touted Chinese loan for the Mindanao railway project. It was one of the country’s big-ticket infrastructure projects promoted under former President Rodrigo Duterte, who had served as mayor of Davao city for decades. The government has yet to appraise the Tabays’ property, Ricky Tabay said. "We hope the railway won’t push through anymore. Even if we get the money from the government, we’re worried that it won’t be enough to pay for a new lot or build a new house," said Chiela Castañares, 36, Tabay’s sister. "We were kept waiting and waiting for nothing. Just leave us alone with our land." The Department of Transportation blamed its consultant, Ove, Arup & Partners, and its sub-consultant and appraiser, Intech Property Appraisal Services, for the delays. "The problems are mostly because of the appraisal consultant. The Department has no contribution to that," Clipton Solamo, project manager of the Mindanao Railway Project, told BenarNews in a phone interview Wednesday. He said Intech had been late with its submission even before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. The firm also submitted erroneous assessments and appraisals, he added, setting the process back further. "There was no justifiable reason that we could find. Every time they failed to submit appraisal reports, we would issue notices of citation, but until now they have not submitted everything," Solamo said. | |
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