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[av_heading heading=’Groundbreaking for Jalaur mega dam in June – Drilon’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’18’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY GLENDA S. TAYONA
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Tuesday, March 6, 2018
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ILOILO City – The groundbreaking for the multibillion-peso Jalaur River Multipurpose Project (JRMP) Phase 2 in Calinog, Iloilo will be in June this year, announced Ilonggo senator Franklin Drilon.
He dismissed reports that the winning contractor, Daewoo Engineering and Construction Company Limited of South Korea, was having financial problems which could derail the project.
“In the first place, a major stockholder of Daewoo is the Korean Development Bank which is (owned by the) Korean government. How can you have financial difficulty with the Korean government as your major stockholder?” Drilon told local reporters on Friday.
Daewoo tendered the lowest bid – P9 billion – for this project that the government estimated to cost P11.2 billion.
Daewoo was supposed to be acquired by a much smaller Korean construction firm, Hoban Construction, Korean sources disclosed. After due diligence, however, Hoban discovered that Daewoo had incurred financial problems from multibillion projects in other countries, sources said.
For instance, Daewoo incurred losses amounting to 308.4 billion won from its power plant project in Safi, Morocco due to defective materials.
“This might not be the end of the story. It is feared Daewoo could experience further unexpected losses in other Asian and African countries,” a news report from South Korea, written by Park Jae-hyuk, stated.
But according to Drilon, “Kun may problema in the financial capacity (of Daewoo), the Korea Eximbank would not (have) concur(red) to the award of (the project contract to ) Daewoo.”
Korea Eximbank is the main source of loans for the mega dam project.
Drilon said no less than the Korean ambassador to the Philippines Han Dong-Man and the Korean government assured him of the start of the actual construction of the dam this June.
“It will have a timetable of 46 months to complete. So about June of 2022, they should be fully operational,” said Drilon.
“What is of note here is that the (loan) interest rate is the lowest that we can get. It’s 0.15 percent, less than one percent, for the grace period of 10 years and payable in 30 years. This is almost an Official Development Assistance given the terms, compared loans being offered by China (which is) three percent interest rate. This is a very concessional loan and almost a grant,” said Drilon.
The dam which will irrigate 32,00 hectares of rice land in Panay Island and is also expected to solve the water supply problem.
“I am confident that this will bring progress to our province, and more importantly increase the income of farmers tremendously,” said Drilon.
The mega dam project involved the construction of three dams, a 6.6-megawatt hydropower plant and an 81-kilometer canal./PN
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