Philippines' Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. and Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koji Haneda inked a 109-kilometer-North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) Extention project deal on Wednesday. The P77.4billion grant will be used to construct one of the flagship programs of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
The construction of the train line is under the "Build Build Build" Program of the President. The granted loan represents the portion of the country's official development assistance (ODA) for its P777-billion NSCR system.
The NSCR system will be funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Asian Development Bank. The railway system plans to extend NSCR Phase 1 north by 53 kilometers and south by 56 km. The plan was approved by the National Economic and Development Authority last Nov. 15and it is expected to improve public transport in the country's capital.
According to the plan, the railway will have 36 stations with 58 eight-car trains and a fully elevated double track railway system that will connect Central Luzon to Metro Manila and Calabarzon. The railway system is expected to pass through the Light rail Transit (LRT) lines 1 and 2, the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3 and the soon to operate Metro Manila subway.
According to reports, it is expected to serve 340,000 passengers every day once it starts its operations in 2022. The trains are expected to be fully operational in 2023. The railway deal came two weeks after the two countries signed an 18-billion loan agreement which will be used to rehabilitate the MRT 3.
The Philippines' Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III expressed the country's satisfaction with the pace of the negotiations for finance grant from China and Japan. According to him, ODA assistance from the two countries was "both relevant and progressing on both sides quite well." The statement was given by the secretary on his meeting with a Japanese delegation led by Hiroto Izumi. Izumi is Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's special adviser.
Recently, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Philippines and on his stay, he signed a number of MOUs covering economic cooperation and infrastructure developments in the country. Secretary Dominguez said that he is unaware of the competition between Japan and China in financing projects in the Philippines. However, he thinks that many countries globally are paying attention to the Philippines mainly because the President has refocused the country's foreign policy to its Asian neighbors. He also noted that aside from the aid from China and Japan, South Korea is providing a significant amount of assistance to the country.
