The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) expressed confidence that it will be able to complete the construction of the bridges funded by the Chinese government in 2021.

In a roundtable with the editors and reporters of the BusinessMirror, “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) Committee Chairman Anna Mae Lamentillo said construction of the Binondo-Intramuros and Estrella-Pantaleon bridges is now in full swing.

The Department of Public Works and Highways’ Anna Mae Lamentillo, who chairs the “Build, Build, Build” Committee, fields questions at the BusinessMirror Coffee Club on Monday.

Lamentillo said the Binondo-Intramuros Bridge is 27 percent complete while that of the Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge is at 47 percent. The total cost of the two bridges is P4.86 billion.

“DPWH does not have Chinese loans, what we have are China grants. Binondo-Intramuros and Estrella-Pantaleon are undertaken at no cost to the government,” Lamentillo said.

The P3.39-billion Binondo-Intramuros bridge is a 680-lineal meter Basket-Handle tied steel arch bridge. It connects Intramuros and Binondo with a viaduct structure over Estero de Binondo.

The P1.47-billion Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge project in Makati aims to replace the prestressed concrete rigid frame bridge with corrugated steel webs with 4-lane concrete deck slab of approximately 506.46-lineal meters.

It will connect Estrella Street at Makati side to Barangka Drive at the Mandaluyong side.

The Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge closed for renovation on January 19, 2019.

Both bridges are part of the 100 flagship projects of the government which include several projects funded by Chinese loans.

These projects are the Chico River Pump Irrigation System costing P2.7 billion; the new centennial water source or the Kaliwa Dam, P10.9 billion; and the PNR South Rail, which spans Metro Manila to the province of Bicol, at P151.3 billion.

The Duterte administration has accumulated $9 billion worth of loans from Beijing since the visit of Chinese delegations in the country in October 2017.

In 2016, Chinese President Xi Jin Ping had committed some $9 billion worth of official development assistance and commercial loans to the Philippines to bankroll the Duterte administration’s infrastructure projects.