TWO big-ticket projects in Mindanao under the centerpiece infrastructure program of the Duterte administration, which is exiting by June 30, have yet to break ground and their future now lies in large part on the new leaders who will be elected in May.
“The new government will have a big role as they will play a big part in the continuance of the big-ticket projects in Mindanao,” Secretary Mabel Sunga-Acosta, chair of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), said in a virtual briefing on Thursday as the agency celebrated its 12th anniversary.
These projects are the Mindanao railway and the Samal Island-Davao City bridge, both to be financed under loan deals with China.
“It will be the main agenda of MinDA to push for these big-ticket projects,” Ms. Acosta said, noting that transport connectivity is crucial in the development and economic growth of the country’s southern islands.
“We need connectivity within Mindanao and with other areas in the Philippines and BIMP-EAGA,” she said, referring to the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area.
MinDA Deputy Executive Director Romeo M. Montenegro said the railway is moving along in terms of land acquisition through funds allocated under the national budget, but this only covers the first 100-kilometer segment across the cities of Tagum, Davao, and Digos.
In January, the Transportation department said China is expected to give its short list of bidders for the first segment construction within the first quarter this year.
“This has a government counterpart under the General Appropriations Act. As announced by the Department of Transportation, the Mindanao Railway Project, particularly TDD (Tagum, Davao, and Digos) segment, is going to be started,” he said.
The entire Mindanao Railway Project is envisioned as an 830-kilometer circular train system with over 700 kilometers of spur lines that will run around the entire southern mainland.
For the bridge that will connect Samal, a popular tourist destination, to mainland Mindanao through Davao City, Mr. Montenegro said the government has started to issue notices of taking to property owners on the Davao side.
“The Samal side none yet because this will have to be anchored on the finalization of the loan agreement between the Department of Finance (DoF) and Chinese counterpart. Once that agreement is firmed up and signed, that will already set into motion among other specific activities that will be undertaken for the start of the project,” he said.
He said the DoF — along with the National Economic and Development Authority and the Department of Public Works and Highways — are still aiming to finalize the “specific details” of these priority projects before President Rodrigo R. Duterte steps down.
“We still have between now until June 30,” he said. — Maya M. Padillo