CLARK FREEPORT – Former transportation and communications secretary Jose de Jesus said here said the frozen North Luzon Railways (Northrail) project should be “reviewed and renegotiated” not only in terms of cost, but also in terms of design.
In an interview with Punto, De Jesus, who resigned as secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) last June 30, cited information from engineers that the design of the Northrail project is not appropriate to the terrain of areas it covers from Metro Manila to this freeport.
“The technical people who evaluated it said they (Chinese contractors from Sinomach firm) brought the wrong design using Chinese standards which are not suitable for what we need in terms of terrain,” De Jesus said.
Hundreds of millions of pesos, from funds from a loan from China Export- Import Bank, have already been spent for Phase 1 of the project from Caloocan City to Malolos, Bulacan.
At least 800 huge concrete piles have already been driven into the ground along this route where problems have been encountered in grounds which turned out to be too soft.
Phase 1 of the project was initially estimated to cost $403 million, but this was jacked up to $602 million in the last years of the Arroyo administration.
De Jesus noted that while the cost of Phase 1 went up, “the scope of the project went down.”
Phase 2 is supposed to be from Malolos to the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) at Clark freeport where thousands of informal settlers along the railway tracks have already been resettled.
The entire project from Caloocan to Clark was initially estimated to cost $1 billion to be covered by a loan from China under an executive agreement signed by the President in 2004, although the project was started only in 2008.
“The report I got from our engineers is that the design (of the Northrail project) was not suitable,” De Jesus stressed.
De Jesus said that the increase in the cost of Phase 1 “should trigger some questions and we were asking these questions (before I resigned from DOTC).”
He said that without the railway project, “Clark will not reach its full potential” and its “assets will not be fully utilized.”
De Jesus was referring particularly to the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) at Clark, which former Pres. Ramos designated in an executive order as “the future site of the country’s premiere international airport.”
He said that the Northrail remained a priority in the Aquino administration but that “it left so many problems behind.”
“We can’t just cover them as if nothing happened,” he added.
Without the railway linking Clark to Metro Manila, it would be harder to convince airlines to establish regular flights at the DMIA, he said, even as he noted congestion at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila.
Earlier, the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) asked current
Transportation and Communications Sec. Manuel Roxas II to junk the government’s contract with the Chinese contractor Sinomach on the Northrail amid claims of overpricing.
Delays in the construction of the railways was initially attributed to claims of overpricing, prompting the DOTC to review it.
A reliable source from the DOTC, who asked not to be named, said that the government did not freeze the project.
“It was the Chinese contractor which backed out when the government started to question the increase in the cost of the project,” he said.
