Security, other issues cloud dream of Mindanao Railway System
By: Judy Quiros, Julie Alipala - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 07:25 AM April 24, 2018
(Last of two parts)
DAVAO CITY—“It will be so fast, so cheap and so efficient, you can have your breakfast in Surigao City, lunch in Zamboanga, and dinner in Davao City.”
This was how Secretary Abul Khayr Alonto of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) envisioned how life would be in Mindanao if the Mindanao Railway System pushes through under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
While the project has raised hopes among local officials of finally seeing a railroad link provinces in Mindanao, is the government just selling them a dream?
A year before the President steps down from office in 2022, only the 102-kilometer segment spanning Digos and Tagum cities will be completed.
The government has not provided a schedule for the completion of the 2,000-km railroad across the island.
Also, the current plan provided by MinDA does not mention a high-speed train yet.
Its proposal for a two-track electric railroad for the Digos-Tagum route was shelved by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) in favor of a single-track, diesel-run locomotive.
Outside loop
The cities of Zamboanga and Surigao are outside the proposed main railroad loop. These urban centers have to be connected by spur lines from the main line in Butuan City (for Surigao) and in Iligan City (for Zamboanga).
Visiting Zamboanga City in March, former MinDA Secretary Jesus Dureza, now presidential adviser on the peace process, told the Inquirer that it would still take a long time before the rails would reach the city.
“A backbone will travel [from Davao City] up north and you have to look at the terrain,” Dureza said. “You cannot just say, let’s put up a train there. The train cannot go up the mountain. If there are mountains, you need to put up tunnels.”
“Whether or not the entire … [railroad] would be completed [in the Duterte administration] depends on how fast the government could allocate funds for the other sections, how viable [these segments are] to warrant quick approval from the Neda-ICC (National Economic and Development Authority-Investment Coordination Committee),” said Romeo Montenegro, MinDA deputy director for operations.
Building each segment in succession would take a long time, that was why MinDA has recommended that the DOTr allocate a budget to fund the feasibility studies for the rest of the track.
Once the studies are there, Montenegro said MinDA could easily scout for a partner to do the detailed engineering design and attract investors to fund the project.
“Without the [feasibility] studies, the plan [to build a Mindanao-wide railroad] would only be ‘drawings,’” he said.
Montenegro is hopeful, however, that the first segment of the proposed railroad would start construction soon.
Though Zamboanga City would be one of the last areas to be reached by the railroad, people there are welcoming the plan.
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Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said a railroad would bring development to Bangsamoro areas, but the government had to conduct extensive dialogues and negotiate with landowners along the route to prevent possible delays.
“[Based on our] experience in [implementing] road projects, we only hit a kilometer and be pressed to pay an equivalent of more than 10 km,” he said.
“The national government must explain [to the landowners] that the railroad would be for their own good. They must secure the help and cooperation of locals,” Hataman said.
Sense of ownership
Dureza said the people of Mindanao should have a sense of ownership so they would be willing to protect the railroad project themselves, instead of relying on the military and police.
“Proposals for a railroad project in the past did not push through because of peace and security issues,” he said. “There was this feeling that the place was not secured.”
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