THE Marcos Administration is looking at other partner countries to finance the railways projects after they withdrew its loan applications to China for some of its projects.

According to Transportation Undersecretary Timothy John Batan said that the applications were withdrawn in July 2022.

This was after a new administration stepped in with the loans still not approved.

The Marcos government did not reapply for the loans in December 2022 for the Philippine National Railways (PNR) South Long Haul and in January 2023 for the Subic-Clark Railway project. 

As there are no actions from China by the end of October, the said loan application for the Subic-Clark railway said that it was “deemed withdrawn" as well.

Earlier, the Philippine side explained that they are giving the Chinese side had until end of December to act on the loan application for the South Long Haul project to Bicol.

But the Philippines no longer pursued further loan applications for the Mindanao rail project "since we have not gotten any action from China’s side on the first 2 projects, Subic Clark and on South Long Haul."

"In the third quarter of this year, in coordination with the Department of Finance, there was a discussion on — essentially, how long are we going to wait for China’s side to act on or approve our loan applications?" Batan said.