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By Mark Louie P. Roxas, Correspondent
CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga: Newly designated
chairman of North Luzon Railways Corp. (NLRC) Edgardo Pamintuan has
started discussing with concerned government agencies the completion
of the $1.008-billion railway from Metro Manila to this free port by
the end of 2010.
Secretary Pamintuan, also chairman of the Subic-Clark
Advisory Development Council (SCADC) bared here last week that the
President has given him full authority to work on the north railway
project and the fate of the government’s deal with China.
The President has ordered the construction of
the NorthRail Project (NRP) from Caloocan City to Clark Freeport to
continue after the Chinese contractor begged off from pushing
through with it due to the increase of necessary rail construction
materials and delay in the relocation of squatters along the
rail-right-of-way.
Pamintuan, former Angeles City Mayor, said in an
interview that the President wants the said railway project
repackaged immediately, and also refinanced. The project was
originally started in 2003 with a loan of $400 million from
China’s Import-Export Bank and $100 million from the Bases
Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).
This amount is for the first phase of the
project, consisting of the 32-kilometer segment from Caloocan City
to Malolos City in Bulacan.
The Chinese government without the benefit of a
public bidding chose the contractor of the NRP, China’s National
Machinery and Equipment Group (CNMEG).
However, CNMEG begged off from pushing through
with the project due to the escalation of prices of steel and other
rail construction materials, according to Pamintuan.
The Chinese contractor also complained that
there was a delay in the clearing of the railway right-of-way with
informal residents or squatters, as well as their relocation to
resettlement areas.
Pamintuan said that following the President’s
2010 timetable for the railway, he would likewise work to extend the
project to Cabanatuan City.
Some big-time and professional squatters have
been blocking the construction of the rail project by constructing
permanent commercial establishments on the former Philippine
National Railway (PNR) tracks in Malolos City and other Bulacan
towns, with some establishment owners claiming that they were
granted permits by a son of former President Estrada.
There are big commercial establishments in
Malolos City and Calumpit, Bulacan that extend to portions of
MacArthur Highway, thus preventing the widening of the highway.
Department of Public Works and Highways
authorities have been urging squatters in the MacArthur Highway
pavements in Bulacan to transfer to relocation sites that the
government has prepared for them.
Arsenio Bartolome, the predecessor of Pamintuan
at the NorthRail Project, earlier recommended the termination of the
contract with the Chinese firm as it was reportedly demanding some
$300 million in additional cost to continue the project.
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