Finance Secretary Ralph Recto should consider visiting Japan to seek Tokyo’s assistance in funding the long-delayed Mindanao Railway Project (MRP), Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel said on Sunday.
“We do not want Mindanao to be left behind in the government’s railway infrastructure development plan,” Pimentel said in a statement.
The Mindanao lawmaker, a senior member of the House Committee on Flagship Programs and Projects, said Recto should visit Tokyo to seek additional official development assistance (ODA) from Japan for the MRP.
Pimentel said the Japanese government “might be ready to help fund the MRP, considering that Tokyo is very interested in promoting peace and development in Mindanao.”
Japan Prime Minister Kishida Fumio underscored Mindanao’s importance in Tokyo’s vision of a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” in his speech at a joint session of the Philippine Senate and House of Representatives during a visit in November last year.
“Stability in the Mindanao region is linked to peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. From this perspective, Japan has supported the peace process and economic development over the past two decades. We just announced yesterday in our meeting with President Marcos, the provision of heavy equipment for disaster management in Mindanao. This cooperation is based on the vision of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific,” he said.
The MRP was stalled after the Philippine government backed out of loan negotiations with China in October last year.
“The MRP will surely drive Mindanao’s economic and jobs growth in a big way. The project will help fight unemployment and poverty – conditions that have bred instability,” Pimentel said.
Meanwhile, he also urged the National Economic Development Authority to expedite its revision of the estimated cost of MRP Phase 1.
Before it got deferred, MRP Phase 1 was projected to cost P83 billion.
As originally designed, Phase 1 will involve the construction of a 102-kilometer train line linking the provincial capital of Davao del Norte, Tagum City, with the provincial capital of Davao del Sur, Digos City.
The train line will traverse Davao City, which is also in Davao del Sur, and cut travel time between Tagum and Digos from the usual three hours to just an hour.
Phase 1 will move 122,000 commuters every day on its first year of operation, with six commuter trains (with five cars each) deployed every hour and running through eight stations.
The line will also have 15 freight cars for cargo shipments.
The entire MRP will eventually consist of a 1,544-kilometer railway stretching out to the cities of General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, Cotabato, Zamboanga, Butuan, Surigao, and Malaybalay.