Senate hearing on proposed Mindanao railways suspended

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Richard Gordon suspended yesterday a hearing on his proposal to create the Mindanao Railways Corp. due to lack of data from the resource persons invited from the executive department.

Senate Bill 2097 filed by Gordon seeks to improve the transportation system in Mindanao and promote development in the region.

However, officials from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) were not able to provide the necessary information relevant to the proposal because, according to them, feasibility studies were still being done.

Since they could not come up with specific statistics and other information, Gordon decided to just call off the hearing and reminded the officials to be more prepared next time.

The studies on the Mindanao railways will be completed by June, the officials assured.

Officials from the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Department of Budget and Management were also invited to the hearing.

“We are relying on the government to tell us what their studies are. That is why in the next hearing we included the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry), NEDA, DOTC and possibly DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) and local governments to tell us what kind of impact it is going to have,” Gordon said.  – Aurea Calica