Nice Present from the EU

Wow. Nice present.

Does the EU have 9.1 trillion Euro to throw away?


I know they're daft but not that daft.

Yep I can see them flying overhead.

Now that Duterte has corruption under control, what a fantastic investment for Europe and for the Philippines. A fast rail system made up of bridges connecting Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao!

I don't think the EU is doing any funding. Linking the 3 main islands is a pipe dream. Corruption under control

Corruption under control? Who told you that?!

A rail service between Manila and southern Mindanao is about as likely as a monorail commuter system in Davao and Cebu having an underground railway! All three schemes have been proposed but that doesn't mean any or all will actually be built.

It's not about "the project".
It's about splashing around lots of money to make the EU look important.
And to buy loyalty from people in positions of international power and influence.

Surely Duterte will clean up tout suite, just like in Davao. And as for earthquakes, the Japanese have done it.

Big difference between running a city and running a country.

Hell of a big difference between the Japanese and Filipino cultures, nevermind any geological and climatic considerations.

What, in the immortal words of Tommy Cooper, "just like that"? Cleaning-up the rest of the Philippines to match Davao would take considerably longer than Duterte's six year term as President. Any progress made in that direction may well be undone during his successor's tenure: there's far too much at stake for the ruling families and it's a fair bet that the Liberals will be back in power next time.

Earthquakes are less of a problem than typhoons and the proposed rail link would pass through "Typhoon Alley" - between central Luzon and northern Mindanao - where over 90% of typhoons make landfall. Any long bridges would be in constant danger of being weakened or swept-away.

Forget the rail link, it's a "vanity project" that will never happen. It would still be cheaper and quicker to fly between Manila and Davao; the cost of air travel within the country has actually decreased in real terms over the last 7 or 8 years.

A "vanity project" that at 9,100,000,000,000.00 euro is about six times the EU's agreed annual budget of 143,000,000,000.00 euro, (for the year 2014).

There are a lot of zero's in there.

Oh dear. Not a lot of hope then.

If the world's 5th largest economy (UK) has to argue about the affordability of one railway line a couple of hundred miles long...

But to be fair, the projected cost is similar

Sir Richard seems to be forging strong links with the new regime. I wonder if he would like to have a go at it?

"Forging links"?? Being a guest speaker at a conference organised by a local TV station hardly qualifies as "forging links" unless you're the most ardent of spin doctors. And I really doubt that Branson - a well-known libertarian with a more relaxed attitude to drugs - would agree to invest any money in the country whilst Duterte is President. Not when he's demanding an end to Duterte's anti-drug war and for him to drop his planned reintroduction of the death penalty.