The newly appointed head of Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) is mulling over the dissolution of the North Luzon Railways Corp. (Northrail).
BCDA President and CEO Vivencio B. Dizon told reporters on Thursday that Northrail is no longer serving a purpose and only exists as an entity to serve as a party to an ongoing arbitration case with a Chinese contractor.
“On the part of BCDA, we are already studying the possibility of dissolving North Rail as a corporation. The only purpose now of the company is to be a party to the arbitration case. The previous administration stopped the operations of the corporation. There are still people working there but not for the implementation of the project. We’re doing the diligence on the financials of Northrail for the preparation for possible dissolution,” Dizon said at a news conference on Thursday. The Northrail was created to implement the Northrail project, which sought to connect Central and Northern Luzon.
The project had been saddled with numerous controversies and undergone several changes in the project terms since the Arroyo administration, culminating in the cancellation of government’s contract with the Chinese state-owned contractor China National Machinery and Engineering Group.
According to Dizon, the case is still under arbitration with the Chinese contractor will be pursued.
The final ruling will determine if the Philippines will still pay the remaining amount of $106 million, from the total $316 million claim of the contractor.
Dizon said they’ll be making a decision in 2017 to dissolve Northrail definitively.
Meanwhile, the connector railway project itself has been transferred to the Department of Transportation to ensure the long-awaited project can finally gain ground.
“I think the most important thing is, the project finally happened. The priority of the administration is to complete the project during President Duterte’s term,” the BCDA head said.