Posted on December 3, 2025
Philippines delays US$124 million infrastructure project after a maritime group raised concerns against China Harbour Engineering Company
The Philippines deferred the awarding of a project that is part of a plan to build one of the world’s longest marine bridges after local opposition over the potential involvement of a Chinese company due to national security fears.
The proposals were “undergoing thorough review” by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which acts as a lender and an overseer of the project to ensure it meets international environmental and governance standards, Manila’s public works department said in a statement on Monday.
The agency said it would announce the winning bidder once ADB had fully evaluated the proposals for technical and financial compliance and had given a “no-objection letter”. The agency, which initially targeted to issue the award notice on November 29, did not directly refer to national security concerns raised by a local shipping group against a Chinese bidder.
“The target date of award and notice to proceed for the project will be announced in the coming weeks,” it added.
Andrew Jeffries, ADB’s country director for the Philippines, said the project followed the bank’s rules. The public works agency was “undertaking the procurement while ADB provides oversight of the process to ensure compliance with our policy and regulations,” Jeffries said in a statement on Tuesday.
Chinese companies offered some of the most competitive tenders for the 7.25 billion peso (US$124 million) land approach project, a section of a US$3.9 billion plan to build a 32km (20 miles) bridge across the mouth of Manila Bay.
But their bids have faced opposition in Manila, threatening to delay a key infrastructure project that President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr vowed would improve transport and logistics in the nation’s main Luzon island.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr (front right) hailed the Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge project, which will shorten travel time between Central Luzon and Calabarzon from five hours to 45 minutes. Photo: Handout
The bridge project will get US$2.11 billion funding from ADB, with US$1.14 billion to be co-financed by the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, according to Manila’s finance agency.
In a letter addressed to Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon and Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr, the Philippine Interisland Shipping Association and other maritime industry stakeholders urged the government to reject the bid of China Harbour Engineering Company, which offered to construct the project for 4.87 billion pesos, the lowest of all bids.
Awarding the project that would link Bataan and Cavite provinces to a Chinese state-owned company “creates an untenable and unacceptable risk of sabotage and intelligence gathering on vital national assets,” the association said in a letter posted on its Facebook page in October.
The group also cited “unmitigated national security risks and serious concerns over business integrity” of the Chinese firm.
A cargo ship at Lekki port in Lagos, Nigeria. The project is part of a project by China, France, and Nigeria, constructed by the China Harbor Engineering Company Photo: Xinhua
China Harbour is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company. The US State Department had sanctioned units of China Communications in 2020 for the “destructive dredging” of Beijing’s outposts in the South China Sea and for engaging in “corruption, predatory financing, environmental destruction, and other abuses across the world.”
China Harbour did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Marcos administration has challenged Beijing’s expansive claim over the strategic waterway and has stepped up maritime patrols, which have sometimes led to collisions between Philippine and Chinese vessels.
But the government has also tried to insulate the Philippines’ economic ties with its top trading partner, China, from the geopolitical tensions.
There are agencies that advise whether a project can go ahead because there is this company has a spurious background
Andres Centino, Philippines’ South China Sea adviser
Andres Centino, a former military chief who’s currently Marcos’ adviser on the South China Sea, said he has heard about other government security agencies looking into the bridge project.
“There really are agencies that advise on whether a particular project can go ahead just because there is this company which perhaps has a spurious background,” he said.
