Marcos Jr. promises to continue Mindanao railway

With two weeks to go before President Rodrigo Duarte steps down, the Mindanao railway is yet to start. 

However, President-elect Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. said he is supporting the construction of the Mindanao Railway to help boost the economy.

Transportation Undersecretary for Railways TJ Batan, during briefing with reporters, said China has yet to provide the shortlist of design-and-build contractors for the Mindanao Railway.

The Mindanao Railway is among the three projects to be funded by official development assistance from China. Beijing’s loan process is different from other countries, as a project management consultant and a contractor needs to be locked in first before loan negotiations can begin.

Batan revealed that the project will not start anytime now citing “that’s because we haven’t received the short list of contractors yet”.

He said, “right now, there is an ongoing review and request by the Philippine side to the China side for the short list of these three contractors. We are hoping that the list is provided soon, subject of course to the policy direction of the incoming administration”.

The Philippines started requesting the short list of contractors in 2019. The design-and-build contractor shortlist has been pending since then, while the project management contract for the Tagum-Davao-Digos segment was signed in October 2021. 

So far, the Department of Transportation (DoTr) has started with the right-of-way acquisition for the project.

Other big ticket railway projects of DoTr that were marked as “ongoing” based on the list of flagship infrastructure projects of Duterte administration, are:

• Metro Rail Transit Line 7  (MRT7)
• North-South Commuter Railway
• Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT1) Cavite Extension
• Philippine National Railway (PNR) South Long Haul also known as PNR Bicol
• LRT 2 West Extension
• Metro Manila Subway
• MRT4
• Subic-Clark Railway

Like the Mindanao Railway, the MRT4 and the LRT2 West Extension have yet to start construction.

Batan expressed optimism that the next administration will see the value in continuing the Duterte administration’s big-ticket railway  projects. Jinky Jorgio