October 10, 2017
THE GOVERNMENT is looking to place
six to eight infrastructure proposals in the second basket of China-funded
projects, with the Agus-Pulangi hydropower complex rehabilitation at the top of
the list, the Department of Finance said.
Following the Philippine
delegation’s visit to Beijing last month, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez
III said the government has identified the projects it intends to propose for
China financing via official development assistance (ODA), even as both sides
moved to expedite the implementation of the first batch of projects.
“We discussed the basket of the next
projects, which is a basket of about six or eight projects. Among them which is
quite important to us is the rehabilitation of the Agus River Hydroelectric
system,” Mr. Dominguez told reporters last week.
“It looks like it’s only operating
at 60% capacity. And now that we have excess capacity in Mindanao, now is the
time to fix that up so that you know at the time when they have to shut down
for maintenance we will have the extra capacity there,” Mr. Dominguez added. He
also serves as chairman of the state-run Power Assets Liabilities and
Management Corporation (PSALM).
However he said that the government
have not yet arrived at a cost estimate for the rehabilitation.
In June, he said that the
rehabilitation may cost some P34 billion.
“We’ll have to do the feasibility
study. It’s quite a complex project,” Mr. Dominguez said.
Mr. Dominguez declined to identify
the other projects going up for China funding.
“What we discussed are the potential
projects. It’s still in the discussion stage, you know we are moving forward,”
he said.
He noted that the government may be
able to line up the second basket of projects before top Philippine and Chinese
officials ceremonially sign the agreements for the first batch of projects on
the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit here
in November.
The first basket include the
P2.7-billion Chico River Pump Irrigation Project, the P10.86-billion New
Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project, and the P151.3-billion North-South
Railway Project South Commuter Line.
On top of that, the Philippines will
also build two bridges crossing Pasig river, the P4.607-billion
Binondo-Intramuros and P1.376-billion Estrella-Pantaleon bridge, financed by
grants from China. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan
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