Zamboanga solon confident Mindanao rail project will finally get rolling

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines -- Zamboanga Rep. Celso Lobregat is optimistic that his bill for the Mindanao Railway Project (MRP) will be approved at the House and will be realized during the Duterte administration.

 

This, after President Rodrigo Duterte highlighted the MRP in his first State of the Nation Address on Monday as one of his priorities to balance development in the country.

 

“I am very optimistic that this Mindanao Railway Project will be started under the Duterte administration,” Lobregat said of the development of MRP, which has long been planned.

 

Lobregat stressed that the MRP is not only a priority of the president, but is a requirement for the interconnection of Mindanao's provinces.

 

Duterte said his administration will be pursuing rail projects in Metro Manila and major key points in the country, including Mindanao.

 

“I assure you because it’s going to materialize,” Duterte said in his SONA adding that road development projects shall complement his administration’s thrust to modernize agriculture by expanding and improving the construction and rehabilitation of roads and irrigation and establishing modern harvest and post-harvest facilities to minimize losses.

 

The president vowed to accelerate infrastructure spending by improving national roads and bridges and implementing the Mindanao Logistics Infrastructure Network and other road network master plans, as well as pursuing inter-island linkage projects.

 

Lobregat filed House Bill 123 -- an Act Creating the Mindanao Railways Corporation -- last June 30 as one of his priority bills in the 17th Congress.

 

The lawmaker said that based on the Terms of Reference of the National Economic and Development Authority for the conduct of a feasibility study for the MRP, the project is supportive of the thrusts of the updated 2011-2016 Philippine Development Plan.

 

The Zamboanga congressman disclosed that before filing the measure at the House of Representatives, he communicated with Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, author of the Senate version of the proposal, to inform him of his plan to adopt the bill and file it with amendments.

 

“The Senate president was very happy and said it’s a good start,” Lobregat said.  

 

Lobregat said the proposed MRP will enhance interconnectivity and linkages through passengers and freight railway transport development, and further boost trade, commerce and tourism in Mindanao.

 

He said the proposed MRP will compliment projects that will address the lingering problem posed by the poor quality of roads and incomplete road networks in some parts of Mindanao.

 

Mindanao, known as the country's food basket, is the second largest island group in the country with a population of 22 million and an annual population growth rate of 1.9 percent from 2000 to 2010.