RDC officers want Roxas to continue NorthRail project

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines – Officials of the Regional Development Council (RDC) in Central Luzon has issued an appeal to newly installed Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas to continue the stalled Caloocan-Malolos NorthRail project.

The controversial project was initiated under the Ra­mos Administration and the Chinese firm SinoMach finished only about 22.9 percent when it was suspended last May, the Subic-Clark Advisory and Development Council (SCADC) reported in a recent meeting of the RDC here.

Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Alvarado, chair of the RDC Sectoral Committee on Infrastructure Development, reported that exposed metals and materials for the railway along the 32-kilometer stretch of the project up to Malolos were already rusting, while others were either being looted or vandalized.

RDC chairman San Fernando Mayor Oscar Rodriguez, who is also president of the League of Cities of the Philippines, said the project is an important element in the development of Central Luzon.

Phase 1 of the project, costing about $503 million, spans 32.5 kilometers from Caloocan City to Malolos, Bulacan.

The entire project, including Phase 2 from Malolos to Clark, was initially estimated to cost $1 billion, all supposed to be covered by a loan from China under an executive agreement signed by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004. The cost though later rose due to delays in the project.

According to the RDC report, the Chinese contractor had already finished installing about 800 concrete piles to serve as foundations for railway tracks from Caloocan, Balagtas, Bocaue, Guiguinto, and Malolos in Bulacan when the project was frozen last May. Other raw materials have also remained idle at various points of the project route.

The NorthRail project is part of a plan to fully convert the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Clark into the country’s premiere international gateway.

Phase 2 is supposed to end at the DMIA at the Clark Freeport. Thousands of informal settlers along the route had already been moved last year to “Northville” settlements to pave the way for the new railway that required 15-meter clearances on either side of the rails.

The project was initially suspended in 2009 when SinoMach, then known as the China National Machinery and Equipment Corp., abandoned it amid controversies on additional cost and changes in the design.

Last April, officials of the North Luzon Railways Corp. (NorthRail) announced the termination of its “contractual obligations” with the Chinese company and laid-off 70 of its employees last May 1, Labor Day.