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News Top Stories Arroyo aide says NorthRail firm to resume work
News Top Stories Arroyo aide says NorthRail firm to resume work
| Arroyo aide says NorthRail firm to resume work |
| Thursday, 10 July 2008 06:33 | |||
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“They will be back,” Pamintuan said, referring to the China National Machinery and Equipment Corp. (CNMEC). “I am sure. I’m very optimistic because I already talked with (the) commercial attaché (of China in the Philippines) last Sunday.” Pamintuan, who is also chair of the Subic-Clark Alliance for Development Council and Luzon Urban Beltway Region, said he intervened to resolve the issue on orders of President Macapagal-Arroyo on June 30. “After our 30 minutes of discussion, the attaché told me, ‘If we had met earlier, we could have finished the project in two years and a half,’” he said, recalling their conversation. Past accord The project was conceptualized through a memorandum signed by former President Fidel Ramos and King Juan Carlos of Spain in 1994. China provided a loan of $400 million for the Caloocan City-City of Malolos [Bulacan] phase, for which the NLRC made a first draw down of $105 million on Sept. 29, 2004. Since January 2005, the NLRC, a subsidiary of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA), has been paying $400,000 monthly for the loan’s interest. The BCDA and the NLRC have put up a counterpart of $107.819 million to the project. The National Housing Authority had spent about P6 billion to relocate around 20,000 families out of the old tracks of the Philippine National Railways Corp., where the railway system would be built. In 2006, the Chinese government increased the loan to $1 billion to enable the Philippine government to extend the NorthRail to the Clark Freeport in Pampanga where the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport is located. Pamintuan said he was meeting the Chinese ambassador to discuss the final details in the resumption of work by the CNMEC. No work His ocular inspection on Tuesday showed that 160 CNMEC employees, who are involved in survey and design work, had returned to China. Only 20 have remained but were not working. Based on discussions with CNMEC and NLRC officials, Pamintuan said the contractor decided to abandon the project because it “refused to build on a piecemeal basis.” According to him, the NLRC has not freed the alignment [on which the new tracks will be built] from right-of-way problems. For instance, the foundations of several bridges have not been demolished. “The Chinese said they need explosives. The NLRC people got P10 million for that and gave that to the [Armed Forces of the Philippines]. The AFP said their procurement process slowed down. I said that must not be the case. They can fast-track by doing a rebid purchase,” Pamintuan said. On top of those problems, the entire project has not taken off because, he said, the CNMEC and the NLRC have “not come up with a schedule.” “The design has not been approved. Only 22 km out of 34 km have been cleared.”
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