China lends PH P3.135B for Chico River Irrigation Project

The Philippine and Chinese governments have signed the P3.135-billion loan agreement for the Chico River Pump Irrigation Project, the first flagship infrastructure project to be financed by the mainland under the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build.”

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III signed the loan agreement on behalf of the Philippine government last Tuesday on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan, China, while Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua represented the Export-Import Bank of China.

In a statement Thursday, the Department of Finance said the $62.09-million US-dollar denominated loan would cover 85 percent of the project’s total contract amount of P3.689 billion.

To be implemented by the National Irrigation Administration, its total project cost is P4.372 billion.

The DOF said the Chinese loan was slapped an interest of 2 percent per annum, maturing in 20 years.

Citing a report from the state planning agency National Economic and Development Authority, the DOF said the Chico River irrigation project “will provide a stable supply of water to around 8,700 hectares of agricultural land, benefit 4,350 farmers and their families, and serve 21 barangays in the provinces of Cagayan and Kalinga in Northern Luzon.”

Economic cooperation

Dominguez and Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan also signed an agreement on economic and technical cooperation that would provide a 500-million renminbi (about P4.13-billion) grant for four Philippine projects.

The Chinese grant will partially finance the construction of the Binondo-Intramuros and Estrella-Pantaleon bridges across Pasig River, to be implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways, with an allocation of 264.8 million renminbi.

The Department of Agriculture’s Philippine-Sino Center for Agricultural Technology-Technical Cooperation Program Phase 3 will get 27.52 million renminbi, while the feasibility study for the DPWH’s Davao City Expressway Project was allocated 25.83 million renminbi

Radio broadcast equipment

Meanwhile, the provision of broadcasting and radio equipment to the Presidential Communications Operations Office was allotted 17.82 million renminbi.

Since the grants for these four projects totaled 335.97 million renminbi, the balance of 164.03 million renminbi “will be used to finance other projects,” according to the DOF.

Besides the Chico River Pump Irrigation Facility, also part of the “first basket” of infrastructure projects to be funded by China include the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System’s P10.9-billion New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam as well as the Department of Transportation’s P151-billion Philippine National Railways-South Long-Haul Railway.

The loan agreements for these big-ticket infrastructure projects were set to be signed by midyear, the DOF had said.

Airports, bridges

Neda Undersecretary Rolando G. Tungpalan said last week that among the “second basket” of infrastructure projects to be pitched for Chinese financing included regional airports, in which China itself earlier expressed interest, but he did not disclose details.

Tungpalan said China may also be tapped to finance the construction of 10 more bridges crossing the Pasig River in Metro Manila, which was approved for official development assistance financing by the Neda Investment Coordination Committee-Cabinet Committee last month.

The 10 bridges, worth a total of P27.4 billion, will be built by the DPWH to cross the Pasig and Marikina rivers as well as the Manggahan Floodway, as follows: North and South Harbor Bridge; Palanca-Villegas Bridge; Beata-F.Y. Manalo Bridge; Blumentritt-Antipolo Bridge; Mercury-Evangelista Bridge; JP Rizal-St. Mary Bridge; JP Rizal-Lopez Jaena Bridge; Marikina-Vista Real Bridge; East Bank-West Bank Bridge 1; and East Bank-West Bank Bridge 2./lb