Duterte said China pledged billions of dollars to the Philippines. What happened to it?

Five years into his six-year term as president, Rodrigo Duterte is still to deliver many of the Build, Build, Build infrastructure projects he claimed had China’s backing

Much of the Chinese funding appears not to have materialised; some critics suggest the Philippine leader exaggerated the support for his projects

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Chinese President Xi Jinping with Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte in Manila in 2018. Photo: AP

Published: 1:00pm, 14 Aug 2021Updated: 4:02pm, 14 Aug 2021

As Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte rushes to fulfil his pre-election promise to build a railway for Mindanao island, reality is beginning to bite.

Duterte is five years into his six-year term, yet the 83 billion pesos (US$1.64 billion) he claimed China would lend him to build the first phase of the railway is yet to materialise.

Also yet to appear is most of the US$9 billion of official development assistance (ODA) and the US$15 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) that – according to Duterte at least – Chinese companies had pledged towards his Build, Build, Build domestic infrastructure campaign.

Analysts have suggested various reasons why Chinese promises might have fizzled out, from the slow process of getting projects approved in the Philippines to increasing caution by Chinese investors.

Less charitable observers have suggested Duterte himself should shoulder some of the blame. Some see him as China’s tuta (“lapdog”); others suggest he might simply have exaggerated the support for his projects.

“I think he’s more like a highway bandit who knows what he wants and is willing to sell whatever it takes to get it,” said Filipino political economist Alvin Camba.

“Many of Duterte’s promises including the Mindanao railway are simply publicity stunts,” he said, having come to the conclusion after talking to several of the players in some of the projects.