Revival of the “Bicol Express” rail link a gov’t priority; Bicolano solon says

A party-list representative from the Bicol Region said the Philippine National Railways (PNR) project linking the Manila to Bicol region trip would soon be revived.  He said that the national government had an ongoing renegotiation with the Chinese government for a P147-billion loan despite its earlier cancellation.

Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co on Monday said “Since there is an economic [rebound], there is a very huge chance that [President Marcos] will push through with the project even though he lost in Bicol during [the 2022 national] elections. For him, there’s no politics; if that’s for the betterment of the lives of Filipinos and if the PNR project will materialize, it will easily connect the provinces [in] Luzon and the Visayas,”

Co, who is also the chair of the powerful House Committee on Appropriation revealed that once the trains began to operate again between Metro Manila and Bicol, the journey from Legazpi City Albay to the national capital would be cut short from the usual 12 hours that the buses take.

The resumption of the operation of the PNR’s Manila-Bicol route, Co said “would boost economic activities like tourism, agriculture and many more”. The solon had followed up the status of the negotiations for the PNR project with President Marcos. Co said that the president discussed the project as one of the agenda with Chinese President Xi Jinping during recent visit to China.

Back in 2014, the PNR’s Manila-Bicol route stopped its operation due to rail damage caused by typhoons, right-of-way issues and insufficient train coaches. Another Bicol lawmaker, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said that the Marcos administration was serious about pursuing the PNR South Long-Haul project.

Salceda revealed that the president assured him that the project was a priority as soon as Secretary Jaime Bautista was appointed to head the Department of Transportation.

“I appealed to [Finance] Secretary [Benjamin] Diokno to reverse the withdrawal made by the past administration. The interest rates negotiated then, at around 3 percent, would have been very attractive now given higher global interest rates,” Salceda said in an interview.

During a briefing, Transportation Sec. Bautista said that the Department of Finance wrote to China Eximbank in December, signaling they were “ready to reopen the discussion for the loans” for the project. The project’s first package, worth P142 billion, links Calamba City, Laguna, to Daraga, Albay, via a 380-kilometer railway

The PNR Bicol project, along with the Subic-Clark Railway Project and Mindanao Railway Project, was supposed to be funded by China before the Duterte administration scrapped the funding plan due to the inaction of the Chinese state bank.

Salceda said Mr. Marcos’ discussion with Xi about the project should help stress its urgency.

“Of course, other financing options are available but the loan from China is the fastest avenue since the preproject stages have already been completed. The moment the loan proceeds are received, we can award the project and lay the rails,” he said.

The PNR South Long-Haul project, Salceda said, is part of a series of multimodal big-ticket projects to make Bicol a more convenient gateway to the Visayas and Mindanao.