The Philippines deferred the awarding of a project that is part of a plan to build one of the world’s longest marine bridges after local opposition over the potential involvement of a Chinese company due to national security fears.
The proposals are “undergoing thorough review” by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which acts as a lender and an overseer of the project to ensure it meets international environmental and governance standards, the Philippine Department of Public Works and Highways said in a statement on Monday in response to queries from Bloomberg.
The agency said it would announce the winning bidder once ADB has fully evaluated the proposals for technical and financial compliance, and has given a “no-objection letter.” The agency, which initially targeted to issue the award notice on Saturday, did not directly refer to national security concerns raised by a local shipping groups against a Chinese bidder.
“The target date of award and notice to proceed for the project will be announced in the coming weeks,” it added.
Andrew Jeffries, country director for the Philippines at Manila-based ADB, said the project follows the bank’s rules.
The public works agency “is undertaking the procurement while ADB provides oversight of the process to ensure compliance with our policy and regulations,” Jeffries said in a statement yesterday.
Chinese companies offered some of the most competitive tenders for the 7.25 billion pesos (US$396 million) land approach project, a section of a US$3.9 billion plan to build a 32km bridge across the mouth of Manila Bay.
However, their bids have faced opposition in Manila, threatening to delay a key infrastructure project that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr vowed would improve transport and logistics on Luzon island.
The bridge project would receive US$2.11 billion funding from ADB, with US$1.14 billion to be cofinanced by Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Philippine Department of Finance said.
In a letter addressed to Philippine Secretary of Public Works and Highways Vince Dizon and Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr, the Philippine Interisland Shipping Association and other maritime industry stakeholders urged the government to reject the bid of China Harbour Engineering Co, which offered to construct the project for 4.87 billion pesos, the lowest of all bids.
Awarding the project that would link Bataan and Cavite provinces, to a Chinese state-owned company “creates an untenable and unacceptable risk of sabotage and intelligence gathering on vital national assets,” the association said in a letter posted on its Facebook page in October.
The group also cited “unmitigated national security risks and serious concerns over business integrity” of the Chinese firm.
China Harbour is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Co.
The US Department of State in 2020 sanctioned units of China Communications for the “destructive dredging” of Beijing’s outposts in the South China Sea and for engaging in “corruption, predatory financing, environmental destruction, and other abuses across the world.”
China Harbour did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Marcos administration has challenged Beijing’s expansive claim over the strategic waterway and has stepped up maritime patrols that have sometimes led to collisions between Philippine and Chinese vessels. However, the government has also tried to insulate the Philippines’ economic ties with its top trading partner China from the geopolitical tensions.
Andres Centino, a former military chief who is currently Marcos’ adviser on the South China Sea, said he has heard about other government security agencies looking into the bridge project.
“There really are agencies that advise on whether a particular project can go ahead just because there is this company which perhaps has a spurious background,” he said.
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