Economic team cautioned: No onerous infra loans with Beijing

An infrastructure-oriented thinktank urged the Duterte economic team to ensure that no onerous infrastructure loans will be made with Beijing.

“What the public expects from the high-level meeting between the economic team and its counterparts in Beijing is that all loan commitments should have interest rates comparable to other development partners.”

This was the statement of Terry Ridon, convenor of Infrawatch PH and former urban poor chief of President Rodrigo Duterte, as the Philippine government delegation led by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez meets with the Chinese delegation led by Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing to discuss Build Build Build projects to be funded by China.

Ridon, who was previously a member of the bicameral panel on overseas development assistance, said the public has serious concerns on the interest rates imposed by China on the proposed development projects.

Ridon said the economic team should insist that China makes a commitment to present competitive interest rates for its development loans.

“We cannot simply accept the reasoning that government ‘needs more friends’ to justify high interest-rate loans from a supposedly friendly neighbor.” NEDA Secretary Ernesto Pernia was previously quoted as saying that the government “needs more friends” like China to carry out ambitious infrastructure projects.

-Terry L. Ridon, Convenor of InfraWatchPH