Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said the Philippine government could tap the three countries for possible official development assistance (ODA). He said the government may also fund a portion of the rail projects or seek private sector investments.

“We’re exploring these. We cannot give any details yet,” Bautista told a media forum.

The rail projects are the Subic-Clark Railway Project, the Philippine National Railways South Long-Haul Project and the Davao-Digos segment of the Mindanao Railway Project, collectively worth $4.95 billion.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr had ordered officials last year to renegotiate loan agreements with China, which were considered “withdrawn” after the Chinese government failed to act on the funding request.

But Bautista said the government had to look for other financing options since there was no progress on the loan negotiations with China on the rail projects, which began in 2018 during the term of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte pursued warmer ties with Beijing and set aside territorial disputes in exchange for billions of dollars in aid when he was president. Marcos replaced him in June last year.

From more than 1,100 km (680 miles) before World War II, the Philippines had only 77 km of operational railway as of 2016, well behind other urban centres across Asia, government data shows. Marcos has promised to modernise the country’s railway system.

Construction of the Philippines’ first subway train, funded by loans from Japan, is underway in the capital region.

Manila (AP) — A massive fire tore through Manila’s historic post office building overnight, slightly injuring one person and razing the nearly 100-year-old landmark in the Philippine capital, police and postal officials said Monday.

The fire started before midnight in the basement of the neoclassical, five-story building and was brought under control Monday morning more than seven hours after it began, firefighters said.

An investigation was underway to determine the cause of the fire and what was damaged, officials said.

The Manila Central Post Office was one of the capital’s busiest office buildings but was closed when the fire started. The building was the country’s main mail-sorting and distribution hub and was the central office for the Philippine Postal Corporation.

Postal service in the Philippines began during the Spanish colonial period with horse-riding mail couriers.

The building, now recognized as a national landmark, was built in 1926 with high columns in the traditional neoclassical style. It was severely damaged during World War II and was rebuilt in 1946.

It is located along the Pasig River and on a main intersection of the capital’s key roads.

Manila’s military was one of the most poorly equipped in Asia when President Rodrigo Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino, began a modest modernization program in 2012 — but it is still no match for its superpower neighbor China.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana offered few details about the nearly $375 million contract awarded to BrahMos Aerospace to supply an onshore anti-ship missile system to the Philippine Navy.

BrahMos — a joint venture between India and Russia — has developed a cruise missile that the Indian defense ministry says is the fastest in the world.

The Philippines would be the first country to purchase it. India’s defense ministry declined to comment.

The deal involves three batteries, training for operators and maintainers as well as logistics support, Lorenzana said on Facebook where he posted a copy of the “Notice of Award.”

Duterte has been seeking to acquire missile systems for the Philippine military under a modernization program called “Second Horizon.”

“It’s part of our territorial defense,” said Col. Ramon Zagala, spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The system would act as a deterrent to potential aggressors because “you can hit the target from far off,” he told AFP.

Military analyst and historian Jose Antonio Custodio told AFP the system would likely be stationed on the western side of the main island of Luzon or on Palawan island, but he ruled out the Spratly islands due to the “lack of concealment.”

Tensions over the South China Sea spiked last year, with Manila and Beijing accusing each other of territorial violations.

China claims almost all of the waterway, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually, with competing claims from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Beijing has ignored a 2016 ruling by The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration that its historical claim is without basis.