Congressmen want transportation officials to report to the House of Representatives the effects of the delay in the enactment of the 2019 national government budget as well as the status of the various loans offered by China and Japan.
During an oversight hearing at the House of Representatives attended by Speaker Gloria Arroyo, the Committees on Appropriations chaired by Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. of Camarines Sur and on Transportation chaired by Rep. Cesar Sarmiento of Catanduanes were briefed on the performance of the Department of Transportation with regard to its use of the 2018 and 2019 budgets as well as its 2020 budget proposal.
Rep. Federico Sandoval II of Malabon, vice chairman of the Committee on Appropriations who presided over the meeting, told the DoTr officials who attended the meeting: “We want to hear regarding your foreign-funded projects, the commitment of various countries in the development of our rail projects, airports and ports, if there are any.”
Sandoval added that the committee wanted to know if the DoTr had any savings left from its last year’s budget as well as the agency’s needs for the coming year.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said the agency would keep the House informed on what the department had been doing in relation to its absorptive capacity and disbursement in relation to the DoTr’s approved budget.
Tugade told congressmen: “We are willing to explain what we have done in relation to our government-to-government arrangement with Japan and China and other projects as well.”
DoTr Undersecretary Timothy John Batan explained that there were three China ODA (official development assistance) funded projects on the pipeline: Subic-Clark Railway; Philippine National Railways (PNR) Bicol or the South Line or South Long Haul Project; and the Mindanao Railway Phase 1 as well as the eventual future phases of Mindanao Railway.
He said the most advanced among these projects in terms of loan negotiations is the PNR Bicol.
Batan said the PNR Bicol line was a 649 kilometer-system.
He said that based on Tugade’s discussion with the Chinese counterparts, the development approach was essentially not to wait for the entire 649 kilometers to be completed before operating the system and to proceed with partial operations when a segment becomes operable.
