PH, Japan ink 9.4-B yen loan for Bulacan road plan

The Philippine and Japanese governments yesterday signed the 9.4-billion yen or about P4.3-billion loan agreement for the third phase of the Arterial Road Bypass Project in Bulacan as the government fast-tracked the rollout of infrastructure projects to ease congestion in and out of Metro Manila.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III signed the agreement for the Philippines while outgoing Japan International Cooperation Agency chief representative Susumu Ito represented the Japanese government.

“The loan, amounting to about $89 million, carries an interest rate of 1.5 percent a year for nonconsulting services and 0.01 percent for consulting services, with maturity period of 30 years, inclusive of a 10-year grace period,” Dominguez said in a speech during the signing ceremony.
Since the total project cost for the 24.6-kilometer road is about P5.3 billion, the Philippine government will provide counterpart financing of P1 billion.

The first two phases of the project were also financed with official development assistance (ODA) from Japan through loan deals signed in 2004 and 2012 worth a total of 10.9 billion yen.

Dominguez said the road extension would connect the North Luzon Expressway in Balagtas with the Maharlika Highway in San Rafael.

It will also upgrade and expand the existing bypass road from the two lanes to a four-lane carriageway national road.

“The areas linked by this bypass road are among the most dynamic and therefore most congested. These are towns hosting new industrial estates and numerous agribusiness enterprises. The bypass road will complement the food route supplying Metro Manila. It is a vital link in the food chain highly appreciated by the population of Bulacan province,” Dominguez said.

“[It’s] an economically worthwhile investment. It symbolizes the economic calculation, immediacy of impact and long-term multiplier effects that we wish to see in all the ‘Build, Build, Build’ projects,” he said.
In a statement, Jica said the project’s third phase would start implementation in May “and will help deliver time savings of 45-50 minutes for commuters from the northern part of Metro Manila traveling to the south.”

Following a Jica report last week showing that the economic cost of transportation in Metro Manila was at P3.5 billion a day last year and could grow to P5.4 billion daily by 2035, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia and Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar said the government was working to address the traffic congestion problem.

Jica defined the economic cost of transportation as “the vehicle operating cost and time cost spent by drivers and passengers along the road network in Metro Manila, not economic loss or congestion loss.”