China reiterates pledge to help RP rail rehab plan

China remains committed to the implementation of a major government program to modernize rail lines going north to La Union and south to Sorsogon, Speaker Jose de Venecia announced yesterday.

A statement said De Venecia received assurances from Chinese leader, Li Peng, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, during their hour-long talks Thursday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Li reiterated his commitment made during his Manila visit last September as head of a parliamentary delegation. He gave assurances then that the Chinese government would participate in the flagship program of the Philippine government under President Arroyo to modernize the country’s rail system with two major lines going north and south of Manila.

The North Line runs through Bulacan, Clark in Pampanga, Tarlac, Pangasinan and La Union. The South Line stretches all the way to Albay, ultimately extending to Matnog in Sorsogon, a completely new line.

Construction is expected to start this year.

De Venecia also said China would push ahead with the construction of a planned fish port in General Santos City and a major irrigation project in the Ilocos Region, as part of its commitment to help modernize and uplift Philippine agriculture.

De Venecia first proposed the program to modernize rail lines 18 months ago. He conceived the modernization program under his 747 Economic Action Plan and his Philippine Railway Modernization measure that was already passed on third reading by the House and is now pending before the Senate.

He said the program would decongest and reduce traffic and pollution in Metro Manila, lead to the emergence of new townships along the major routes, create thousands of jobs and provide a cheap and affordable mass transport system to millions of Filipino commuters.

The relocation off some 45,000 squatter families living along the old Philippine National Railway tracks in Metro Manila has already begun.

De Venecia was received warmly in Beijing, where he also addressed the Executive Council meeting of the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace (AAPP) where Li Peng is president.

The AAPP is the biggest parliamentary bloc in Asia, where De Venecia sits as vice president.

De Venecia proposed that AAPP’s 51 member-parliaments initiate a program to exchange the top 20 political and reform laws of their respective countries. — Efren Danao