MANILA - Not all China-backed railway projects have been terminated, an official of the Department of Transportation said on Monday.
 
DOTr Usec. Jeremy Regino, who handles the rail sector, revealed that the PNR South Long Haul project to Bicol remains under talks with China.
 
What was terminated, he clarified, was the Mindanao rail project and the Clark-Subic rail project.
 
“We have not terminated negotiations with China. Negotiations with China still ongoing. In fact, China Export Import Bank technical team was here last December and looking into the progress of our right-of-way acquisition,” said Regino.

• DOTr to pursue first phase of Mindanao rail project

 
The DOTr made the revelation during Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista’s inspection of a segment of the Metro Manila Subway Project, along with Finance Secretary Ralph Recto.
 
The government has said last year it will no longer seek Chinese loans for the three railway projects, which were all projects under the previous administration.

“In the case of Mindanao rail and Subic-Clark, the reason we terminated the negotiation is for us to move forward. It’s already been quite a long time since negotiations have been going on,” said Regino.
 
Bautista, meanwhile, said they will review the new plan for the Mindanao rail project to see if it is viable.
 
“We will need to review the detailed engineering design. Since the project has been delayed, we might need again to bring this to NEDA for assessment,” said Bautista.
 
“We will have to again look at the numbers and if the [new] cost is more than 10 percent, we will need to go back to NEDA. Also, we need to look at ridership because alignment is almost similar to existing highway,” he added.
 
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is financing the Metro Manila subway, said they have not seen the updated engineering design and will look into the project once the latest information is available.

• Mindanao Railway project phase 1 halted due to 'China's waning interest' over PH infra program
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