Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 16) — The Philippines is still part of China’s infrastructure program Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) amid tensions in the West Philippine Sea, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Thursday.
The statement came after Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista was quoted in reports as saying that the country has exited from the BRI after China dropped funding for three railroad projects arranged during the Duterte administration.
“The Philippines signed a new MOU (memorandum of understanding) on the Belt and Road Initiative last January 2023,” the DFA said. “The Philippines is still implementing infrastructure projects funded with Chinese official development assistance.”
The BRI seeks to connect Beijing to the rest of the world by investing in over 150 countries.
Bautista said major projects supposedly dropped by China are the railway from Calamba in Laguna to Bicol province, the railway connecting Subic Bay Freeport Zone and Clark Freeport Zone, and the first phase of the Mindanao Railway Project. All these cost around $4.8 billion.
Bautista recently said Japan, South Korea, and India have offered financing for the three railway projects.
Beijing’s sweeping claims over the South China Sea overlap with the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, and Indonesia.
A 2016 arbitral award invalidated China’s claims over the West Philippine Sea, a part of the South China Sea that Beijing also claims.
