THE GOVERNMENT of President Rodrigo R. Duterte hopes to set the stage for long-term bilateral cooperation on infrastructure development with China, with a 10-year framework on this matter among the 29 deals signed during President Xi Jinping’s Nov. 20-21 state visit to the Philippines.
Malacañang released to reporters on Tuesday a copy of the “Infrastructure Cooperation Program between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Government of the People’s Republic of China” that provides “guidelines for bilateral infrastructure cooperation for the next 10 years” as the Philippines aligns its “long-term vision” with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Signed on Nov. 20 by Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia and Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan, the program is designed to run from November 2018 to November 2028, stretching after Mr. Duterte ends his six-year term at end-June 2022.
The document identifies key areas of cooperation in transportation segments like roads, bridges, intermodal terminals, airports and ferry systems; agriculture systems like infrastructure and fish ports; power; water resource management; as well as information and communications technology/telecommunications.
Specifically mentioned were projects like the Philippine National Railways South Long Haul Project, Subic-Clark Railway Project, Mindanao Railway Project, North South Harbor Bridge, Palanca-Villegas Bridge, Beata-F.Y. Manalo Bridge, Blumentritt-Antipolo Bridge, East Bank-West Bank Bridge 1, Panay-Guimaras-Negros Island Bridge, Negros-Cebu Link Bridge, Cebu-Bohol Link Bridge, Leyte-Surigao Link Bridge, Luzon-Samar Bridge, rehabilitation of all Agus-Pulangi Hydroelectric Plant units, Ambal-Simuay River and Rio Grande de Mindanao River Flood Control Projects, Bohol Northeast Basin Multipurpose Project, Tumauini River Multipurpose Project, Panay River Basin Integrated Development Project, New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam Project.
“… [B]oth sides agree to explore new cooperation modes and expand cooperation scope,” the agreement read, adding that “[b]oth sides agree to cooperate by different… procurement modes” including public-private partnerships, direct investment and technical cooperation.
While tapping concessional loans, export credit “and other means of financing to provide financial support for infrastructure projects… [b]oth sides will actively explore new means of financing and take advantage of the financial markets of both countries to establish effective means of financing for infrastructure cooperation on the basis of market-oriented financing means.”
“The Philippines,” it added, “will consider extending sovereign guarantee for the financing of key infrastructure cooperation projects, as applicable.”
The Philippine government will take responsibility for land expropriation and resettlement for projects, the document said, adding that both sides will facilitate exit and entry of equipment and personnel involved in such projects, and will improve bilateral tax treaties to avoid double taxation.
Mr. Duterte had shocked the Philippines’ partners in the West by announcing his pivot to China and Russia during his October 2016 visit to Beijing, marking a sharp departure from his predecessor’s confrontational approach to Beijing.
Mr. Duterte has since blamed the Philippines’ July 2016 arbitration victory in The Hague — which invalidated China’s basis for claiming sovereign rights over much of the South China Sea — for the increased pace of China’s reclamation and base building in disputed islets in that area.

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