Philippine Senator Juan Edgardo Angara has filed a bill creating a state-owned Mindanao Railways Corporation as a first step in building a railway in Mindanao, the world’s 10th most populous island.
Senate Bill (SB) No. 137 aims to establish the “MindaRail,” which would have a capital stock of P1 billion and create an 11-person Board, all to be appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte. MindaRail will have its offices in Davao City.
Angara said the proposed railway for Mindanao “would allow the island’s urban centers and growth corridors such as the cities of Davao, General Santos, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato, Malaybalay to be linked by rail.”
“Rail is the locomotive that will drive Mindanao’s progress. It is also a driver for peace because as communities become interconnected, economies are linked, growth spreads, and travel brings cultural exchanges,” Angara said.
The senator said the train service should be capable of ferrying not just people but cargo, as the island is an agriculture powerhouse producing, by last count, half a trillion pesos worth of farm produce a year.
Mindanao accounts for half of the country’s corn output, 83% of banana production, 61% of harvested coconut, 90% of pineapple yield, 67% of commercial fisheries catch, and 36% of cattle inventory.
Yet despite posting a gross domestic product of P1.87 trillion, Angara said the island’s 21.9 million people account for 40% of the country’s poor.
“A train system is the ticket out of poverty for many of them,” Angara said, explaining that cheap, reliable, and fast movement of goods would increase incomes and add value to produce.
Angara also noted that the island sits on $310 billion worth of mineral deposits.
“It also has vast potentials for clean energy such solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass,” the lawmaker noted.
The senator, who has been filing a bill on MindaRail since his days in the Lower House, said a railway system is not a novel undertaking in the country.
At its peak, the Philippine railway system stretched for 1,140 kilometers on the islands of Luzon, Panay and Cebu.
Mindanao has 2,000 kilometers of gravel roads, Angara said.
“There are some sectors who argue that money which will be spent for paving these would be better used in building a railway,” Angara noted.
In his first State of the Nation Address recently, Duterte said his government will pursue rail projects, such as the Mindanao Rail Project, in major key points of the country.
“I assure you because it’s going to materialize—rail projects, the Davao Transit System, the Cebu Transit System, the North and South Luzon Railways and the Panay Railways project,” Duterte said.
The Department of Transportation announced it is now open for unsolicited proposals for such rail projects mentioned by the President.
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