The Department of Finance (DOF) denied social media claims that South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has cancelled plans to finance P28.8 billion worth of steel modular bridges in 350 sites in the Philippines due to corruption and mismanagement concerns.
The DOF said in a statement issued on Wednesday there is no active loan agreement with South Korea for any rural modular bridge project.
The statement was issued following a Facebook post supposedly attributed to the South Korean president quoting a Hankyoreh 21 report, which claimed Seoul has scrapped plans to finance the construction of the modular bridges in the Philippines due to fears of mismanagement.
The post quickly circulated online, prompting the DOF to issue a statement.
The DOF said the project had indeed been considered for South Korean financing, but discussions were shelved last year by the Department of Agrarian Reform because of “non-alignment on scope and other key technical specifications.”
“As early as the last quarter of 2024, the government decided to look for other bilateral partners who can implement the full scope of the project. Hence, there is no existing loan for the said project with South Korea,” the DOF said.
Instead, the DOF mentioned that “the government is now in advanced negotiations with the French Government to finalize the project’s technical and financial terms.”
The bridge program aims to build steel modular bridges in 350 remote sites nationwide — 210 in Luzon, 88 in the Visayas, and 53 in Mindanao — to improve connectivity in far-flung communities.
As of press time, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the South Korean Embassy in Manila have yet to comment on Lee’s post or whether it was indeed Lee’s Facebook account that was used for the post.
