JV EJERCITO LAUDS P93-B JICA LOAN FOR NORTH-SOUTH RAILWAY PROJECT

Senator JV Ejercito is lauding the P93-Billion Official Development Assistance given by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency to construct the north segment of the North - South Railway Project (NSRP) as a good holiday present to the Philipine National Railway and to the public.

"This venture is a timely holiday present to the public and also to PNR, as it just celebrated its 123rd anniversary recently. I commend this as a milestone because it will surely increase mobility and enable the spread of development across the country," Sen. Ejercito, as advocate of railway system modernization, today said.

Ejercito took note of the ODA's low interest given by JICA which are 0.10 percent per annum for non - consulting services, and 0.01 percent per annum for consulting services with a maturity of 40 years inclusive of a 10 year period.

"What JICA gave is a good package. Maybe we can consider this framework when engaging into public infrastructure. Low interest rates such as this would enable the government to allocate more funds on education, health, housing, agriculture and other national projects that directly affect the poorest of the poor," he said.