File photo: Philippine President Duterte

On June 24, foreign media reported that China has formally reached an agreement with the Philippines to fund the construction of two bridges using the latest technology in Manila and Mandaluyong City.
According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer website on June 23, the two countries signed the minutes of the site inspection meeting for the bridge projects on the 21st, officially granting permission to build the two bridges. This is the first infrastructure cooperation project between the Philippines and China since Duterte took office.
Philippine Secretary of Public Works and Highways Mark Villar said that China's assistance will include bridge design and construction, while the Department of Public Works and Highways will be responsible for land acquisition for construction.
China earlier sent a project team to the Philippines to provide advice and technical support to the Department of Public Works and Highways on various stages of work including project preparation, launch, and implementation.
The Philippine Department of Public Works and Highways said in a statement that according to preliminary project designs, the assisted bridge in Manila will be a four-lane steel tied-arch bridge with a total length of 807 meters. The bridge in Mandaluyong City will also be four lanes and will be a 560-meter-long double-rib reinforced concrete box girder bridge.
In addition, two other planned infrastructure projects will receive funding from the Chinese government: one is a bridge project, and the other is an urban expressway project.