Gov’t wants private sector in building Mindanao’s railway

As the Department of Transportation (DOTr) continues to look for financial aid to build Mindanao its first railway, the government is not discounting the possibility of tapping a private partner to realize the major infrastructure.

Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista, on the sidelines of an event in Pasay last week, told reporters they were mulling over making the Mindanao Railway phase 1 into a public-private partnership (PPP) project to speed things up.

Bautista hopes to replicate the route the government took with the Ninoy Aquino International Airport rehabilitation project bidding, which only took about 12 months. It was touted as one of the “fastest” solicited PPP projects by the government.

He said they were now crafting the terms of reference for the potential PPP project, but the government was still open to receiving unsolicited proposals from the private sector.

Meanwhile, the transport chief said they would continue looking for official development assistance funds, or loans or grants extended by foreign governments to promote economic development, to finance the railway.

This project was supposed to be funded by state-owned China Export Import Bank (Eximbank) but the Duterte administration scrapped its loan application in 2022 due to the bank’s “inaction,” causing delays in negotiations.

The Marcos administration ordered a renegotiation, but the government decided to drop the deal last year.

A potential funding source cited earlier was the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the same partner that DOTr tapped in crafting the 30-year rail master plan covering the National Capital Region, Central Luzon, and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon).

The P83-billion Mindanao rail project seeks to reduce travel time from Tagum in Davao del Norte to Digos in Davao del Sur to about an hour from 3.5 hours.

Designed to service up to 125,000 passengers a day, the rail line was approved as part of the previous Duterte administration’s ambitious “Build, Build, Build” program and was originally targeted for completion by 2024 up to 2025.

Other upcoming major projects include the North-South Commuter Railway system and the Metro Manila Subway.—Tyrone Jasper C. Piad INQ