Gov't to renegotiate Laguna de Bay project

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino is open to reconfiguring the controversial project to dredge Laguna de Bay, to be undertaken by a Belgian company, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad disclosed yesterday.

“The Belgian project for Laguna de Bay will be discontinued, but the President is not averse if the Belgian government wants to extend that loan for a project that is truly going to be beneficial for the Laguna de Bay area,” Abad told reporters.

“One of the criticisms of the project is we’re trying to desilt (the lake) but you don’t have a program for reforestation and the silt really comes from the land or from the mountains. Or there is no clear resettlement program and between the silting and the waste coming from informal settlers, that’s really the problem you have. (The President) is not averse to renegotiating that loan provided that it goes to beneficial programs,” Abad said.

He said as long as the project is reconfigured or changed “so that it benefits the community there,” then it would be okay with the Philippine government.

“Because right now, the way he (President) sees it, it does not (benefit the people), that’s why he rejected it,” Abad said.

Abad said newly installed Presidential Adviser for Environmental Protection Nereus Acosta was working with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to restudy the project.

Abad said it was not necessarily for the renegotiation of the cancelled project but “for what can really be done for Laguna.”

“There are many aspects - water supply, infrastructure, settlements, reforestation, livelihood, things like that. It’s a good project if the project was (prepared well),” Abad noted.

In the case of the French roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) port project, the President said that of the over 70 ports ordered built by the previous administration, clearly 32 of them were not needed since they were located on the eastern seaboard where the “Pacific Ocean’s fury and might” could easily destroy whatever modular RoRo port project set up there.

“He (Aquino) says it’s useless. Because these are not designed for the area. In fact, the area has to accommodate the design so it’s not a good project. So we are reviewing the balance of the ports to see whether in fact they will be useful. If they will be useful, maybe, but then we have to go to cost because the cost is more expensive by two-thirds,” Abad said.

The government also sought to reconfigure the NorthRail project funded by the Chinese.

Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas II said, “Both in substance and in form, reconfiguration has a difference from renegotiation.”

“Renegotiation means the existing contract will be changed. Reconfiguration is the project itself will be changed,” Roxas said.

The President stood by his decision to cancel or renegotiate the projects that had been deemed disadvantageous to the government and said he would like to have better terms with these foreign firms or governments.

To attract foreign investments, the President said he would like the “right project, right cost, right quality, right people and right on time.”