Mar blasts Northrail contractor

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas said here yesterday that the Arroyo administration contracted a Chinese firm that had “zero experience” in rail construction for the still unfinished Caloocan-to-Clark Northrail project.

This, as Roxas said the Chinese government is again willing to provide as much as $2 billion for the project.       

“Sinomach had zero experience in rail construction, as in walang alam (no knowledge). Tayo ang pinaka-guinea pig (We were used as guinea pig),” said Roxas on the sidelines of the groundbreaking of the $50-million aviation training academy of Cebu Pacific and Montreal-based CAE firm.   

Roxas said the Aquino administration is renegotiating the Northrail project with the Chinese government, as it is still keen on pursuing this amid plans to convert the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport here into the country’s premier international gateway.    

He said the government is now “unwinding” the former contracts with Sinomach, which was designated as builder of the Northrail project during the Arroyo administration.    

“We have continuing talks with the Chinese government which is open to provide even bigger funds for a fast speed railway between Clark and Manila,” he said.     

The Chinese government, he said, could even provide as much as $2 billion for the project, although he said this was merely a “tabletop estimate,” as a definite engineering design still has to be formulated.      

Roxas said Sinomach’s design was for a commuter railway “probably because it had no experience at all in railways, so what more with high-speed railway.”    

“Hindi pu-pwede yun (That cannot be). Passengers from the business districts in Metro Manila would not spend two hours traveling to the airport at Clark on a slow railway,” he said.      

Roxas said the Northrail project would again be bid out so a really competent contractor could handle it.      

What Sinomach has built, according to Roxas, was insignificant and accounted for only about 10 percent of the project, as initially planned.      

Former Transportation and Communications secretary Jose de Jesus earlier told The STAR that when he resigned from the DOTC, the Northrail project was already being “reviewed and renegotiated” not only in terms of cost, but also in terms of design.     

De Jesus also cited information from engineers that the Northrail project’s design was inappropriate for the terrain of areas it would traverse from this freeport to Metro Manila.