DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 15 January) – The Sustainable Davao Movement has called on the Senate to investigate the implementation of the Samal Island-Davao City Connector (SIDC) project due to the ties of the government’s winning contractor, China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), to the China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC), which the United States government blacklisted in 2020.
Mylai Santos, director of the Ecoteneo, the advocacy group for environmental protection and conservation of Ateneo de Davao University, said in a phone interview on Monday that the Senate should also look into the SIDC, also known as the Samal-Davao bridge project, because the CRBC is a subsidiary of CCCC, the state-owned and controlled company tapped to undertake the controversial reclamation project at the Manila Bay.
“The Senate was busy looking into the CCCC and the Manila Bay reclamation when the CRBC which is behind the Samal-Davao bridge project is also its subsidiary company,” she said.
CCCC was among dozens of Chinese firms the United States blacklisted in 2020 for its role in helping the Chinese military construct and militarize artificial islands in the South China Sea, most of which China claims as its own, newswire agency Reuters reported on August 2, 2023.
On its Linkedin profile, the CRBC describes itself as “an important carrier, window and platform of CCCC’s overseas businesses” and focuses on the contracting of projects such as “roads, bridges, ports, railways, airports, tunnels, water conservancy projects, municipal works and dredging works both at home and abroad.”
“It was in that context why we are calling for an investigation. It was made at the height of the issue on the CCCC which is behind the Manila Bay Reclamation Project. It is the mother company of CRBC,” she said.
Last year, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. suspended the reclamation project at the Manila Bay following growing calls for its suspension.
Santos said she hopes that the environmental concerns on the implementation of the SIDC project would be given as much attention as did the Senate to Manila Bay and the West Philippine Sea because “we’re talking about the same company.”
The SIDC costs P23 billion, P19.3 billion of which comes from a loan from the Chinese government.
On October 27, 2022, Marcos led the groundbreaking of the SIDC project, which his administration eyes to finish by 2027.
Davao-based environmental groups, including Ecoteneo, have called on Marcos to realign the SIDC project because the “current design would endanger the Paradise Reef, a 7,500-square meter contiguous reef regarded by marine experts as a ‘hidden treasure’ and an ‘important gene bank’ of marine creatures.” (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
