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The Philippines, particularly Mindanao, is on the cusp of realizing a dream that’s been on the books since the 1930s: The Mindanao Railway.
The 1,570 km circumferential track, which will initially connect Davao City with Tagum and Digos Cities, but will eventually form a loop that will encircle Bukidnon, and connect the Davao Provinces, Compostella Valley, the Agusan Provinces, the Misamis Provinces, Lanao provinces, and Cotabato.
The railway will facilitate the movement of the produce from agricultural lands whose output account for the following according to the publication "The Standard":
http://thestandard.com.ph/news/national/244398/mindanao-rail-gets-p6-5-b-fund.html
83 percent of the country’s total banana production, 61 percent of all harvested coconut, and 90 % of total Pineapple yield.
Under the right circumstances, windfall from this engine of commerce could facilitate the pacification of areas that have historically been vulnerable to the whims of warlords and the influence of ISIS sympathizers. Stability in Mindanao not only brings prosperity to one of the poorest regions in the Philippines, it also frees up national resources that could then be redirected to external defense concerns: China.
Railways also, inherently, provide a security benefit. The sheer volume of cargo that rail can move will allow the AFP to move men and materiel to critical staging areas than would be possible by road transportation and aircraft alone.
Completion, and safe operation, of this railway is not only a regional concern. It is a national imperative.
However, before any economic benefits become obvious to the common person, there will be a period where the railway is simply something that is being built where it wasn’t. At the very least, a curiosity, or at worst, a threat to the status quo. A threat that a local warlord or two might seek to sabotage.
While other parts of the Philippines have railways systems, none of them have ISIS actively working to establish a presence in those areas. (See
Battle of Marawi)
Given the long-standing peace and order situation in the part of the country where the railway will be built, a number of important questions need to be asked:
How do you defend a railway from insurgent / terrorist attack or sabotage?How should the DND-AFP, PNP, DOTr, etc. be organized to defend the rail?Mindanao train on front and center after languishing in the back burner
January 4, 2018 | 2:26 pm
BY MARIFI S. JARA AND CARMELITO Q. FRANCISCO
http://bworldonline.com/mindanao-train-front-center-languishing-back-burner/
IT’S AN OLD IDEA — a Mindanao railway — dating as far back as the late 1930s after the Luzon rail was completed.
Then the Second World War came along and “it was put on the back burner,” National Economic and Development Authority-Davao Region Director Maria Lourdes D. Lim narrated, citing historical information based on government archives that are contained in the latest feasibility study for the Mindanao Railway System (MRS).
Rehabilitation of the Luzon rail was made a priority post-WWII and it wasn’t until 1957 that a train system for Mindanao, the country’s second biggest island after Luzon, was again considered.
A project study was undertaken by the Philippine National Railways (PNR), identifying a 1,570-kilometer (km.) track that would have required a P2.6-billion budget at that time.
It was probably the cost, but no one can say for sure now why the transport system was never pursued. It would remain shelved for more than three decades.
Mindanao train on front and center after languishing in the back burnerIt was under former President Fidel V. Ramos, who started his six-year term in 1992, that the Mindanao
railway got back on the national government’s radar.
But more than two decades later, after numerous plans and studies under different administrations, the railway remained on the drawing board.
“In the past, we were never listened to; sometimes (the national government pretended listening but it was only lip service,” said Vicente T. Lao, chair of the Mindanao Business Council.
Ms. Lim explains that the way government works is that localities and regional agencies basically “compete” for funding and prioritization, particularly for big-ticket projects, and decisions are ultimately made at the national level with socioeconomic, technical as well as political considerations coming into play.
“It helped a lot when President Duterte won,” she said, referring to former Davao City mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte, the first from Mindanao to be elected president.
“And infrastructure investments are really a focus of this administration,” said NEDA-Davao Chief Economic Development Specialist Mario M. Realista.
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