Following his announcement on Friday that Malacañang has cancelled three foreign-funded projects in the country, President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday assured foreign investors that the Philippines will continue doing business with them as long as the projects are beneficial to Filipinos and the contracts are not anomalous.
The President was trying to assuage the fear of members of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) that investing in the country and dealing with government remains unstable because successive administrations may rescind contracts with foreign investors.
On Friday, Aquino disclosed he had a lake-dredging project funded by Belgians cancelled. Two other foreign-funded contracts — one with a French contractor, the other with a Chinese railroad contractor — were cancelled by the Aquino administration, citing the contracts needed refinements.
The P18.7-billion Laguna Lake dredging project will not benefit the lake itself in terms of better water quality and holding capacity, considering that 12 million cubic meters of sludge to be dredged will be dumped in the same lake, according to the President.
In an interview with GMA News Online, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda identified the Belgian firm handling the Laguna Lake project as Baggerwerken Decloedt en Zoon.
If ECCP members knew those details, they would probably ask for a review of the project, Aquino said.
Contracts with French, Chinese firms
Also on Friday, the President said he ordered government to restudy a rail line project funded by the Chinese, and renegotiate the contract to a port project funded by the French.
The contracts to those projects need to be improved, Aquino said.
The French company, Eiffel-Matiere SAS was supposed to fund a roll-on, roll-off port project for the Philippine government, Lacierda said.
On the other hand, China National Machineries and Equipment Group was supposed to fund and undertake the NorthRail project, he added.
“We think, and we believe, that the projects that we will be approving will stand whatever scrutiny. Now if a project is called into question, so long as it’s valid, it should be able to withstand scrutiny and therefore will continue, the President said.
“If, however, it is based on very faulty and false premises, then obviously even the tiniest scrutiny will not allow it to pass," he added.
Foreign investors holding back
Some foreign investors are now holding back when it comes to investing in the Philippines in the absence of guarantees that their investments and projects will be able to progress through time unhampered, ECCP president Hubert d’Aboville said on Tuesday.
Investors want Aquino and his Cabinet secretaries to make a commitment their investments will be intact for 30 years, D’Aboville said.
"Perhaps I will ask the Secretary of Foreign Affairs to contact them and to assure them that where there are projects that are reasonable, that are sound, that have economic benefit, and of value to our people, they will continue," Aquino said, in response to the concerns of the ECCP. — With a report by Jesse Edep/PE/VS
