Malacañang has had to deflate its party balloons. Days ago it was boasting of enticing $15 billion in investments from President Duterte’s China visit. But then a congressman-ally noted that two Chinese state firms with which Manila had inked major deals previously were entangled in sleaze, and a third one in Beijing’s illegal construction of artificial islands in Philippine seas. Well, er, uh, those were just memos of understanding, not final contracts, that were signed, shamefaced Palace officials stammered. The clarification tended to diminish the ballyhooed accomplishments. Still there’s a lesson learned. Duterte must proceed with caution in dealing with Beijing. More traps lie ahead. Most of them aim to trick Manila into yielding sovereignty over maritime resources. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had fallen for it during her Presidency.

Rep. Harry Roque exposes the three Chinese companies’ dark past. China Road and Bridge Corp. (CRBC) is to build the Fort-Bonifacio-Manila International Airport segment of Mega Manila’s bus rapid transit. In 2009 it was blacklisted from World Bank projects worldwide for bid rigging in several Philippine road works. Roque earlier had sued it for bagging the Catanduanes Circumferential Road contract despite exceeding the government budget. The deal was disguised as an executive agreement, which Roque likens to the $329-million National Broadband Network-ZTE Corp. deal that had a 60-percent kickback of $200 million. In 2011 the WB also blacklisted CRBC’s mother China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) and all related firms up to 2017.

The China CMAC Engineering is to go into renewable energy with a Filipino partner. It reportedly was involved in anomalous deals with the governments of Bangladesh, Nepal, Bolivia, and Zambia. Roque says it is a subsidiary of Sinomach, formerly CNMEG (China National Machineries and Equipment Group), which had contracted to build the North Luzon Railway from Manila to Malolos, Bulacan. Conceived in 2004, the $803-million project was never completed; yet the government repaid the Chinese loan and interest in 2015. (In 2004 the political opposition derided North Rail as the most expensive in the world. Ten years later those politicos, ascending as the administration, assigned the same work to Japan – for nearly thrice the amount, $2.255 billion.)

http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2016/10/31/1638954/malacanang-must-learn-beijing-trickery