Public-Private Partnership Center

ILOILO CITY — The proposed revival of Panay’s railway system is viable to be undertaken under the government’s flagship public-private partnership (PPP) program, the head of the office overseeing this project asserted here recently.

Cesar S. Capellan, Panay Railways, Inc. (PRI) officer-in-charge, said that studies conducted by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) since 1995 have shown that the project is viable under the build-operate-transfer/PPP scheme, which will free the national government from providing funds, subsidies or guarantees.

The project is not included in the preliminary list of PPP items.

“The latest DoTC study, conducted from 2008-2011, has shown that all favorable economic, business and social factors now coexist to make the revival feasible. The revival studies have taken all 16 years and are not one-shot, incomplete or inadequate,” Mr. Capellan told journalists here.

PRI, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Philippine Veterans Investments Development Corp. under the Office of the President, also said in a statement that it “rejects the idea of seeking foreign loan funding for the project, realizing that this would only add to the national debt burden.”

The National Economic and Development Authority’s regional office recently approved the project on the basis of the 2011 feasibility study.

The Regional Development Council, headed by Capiz Governor Victor A. Tanco, Sr. as chairman, had approved it in April as the flagship project of Western Visayas.

The P23-billion project, which aims to shorten travel time on Panay island by 2015, will link Iloilo City to Caticlan.

It will be undertaken in two phases. Phase 1 covers the rehabilitation of 117 kilometers of existing railway from Iloilo City to Roxas City at a cost of P16 billion, while the P7-billion second phase involves extension of the railway from Roxas City to Caticlan port, gateway to Boracay. — FALA