MANILA, Philippines – China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC), a firm blacklisted by the United States in 2020, promised “more investments” in the Philippines through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), Malacañang announced on Monday, January 30.

In a release to media, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met with officials of the CCCC in Malacañang. The CCCC is under Beijing’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

During the meeting, the Palace said, the firm proposed a 270-kilometer Laoag City, Ilocos Norte-Rosario City, La Union, highway project, as well as bringing China’s Juncao technology to the Philippines.

According to the Chinese foreign ministry, Juncao means breeding fungi with herbaceous plants. The technology is touted to “address poverty, soil erosion and desertification.”

The CCCC wants to create a Juncao center and industrial park. Should it push through, it will be funded through Chinese foreign aid.

The CCCC is behind some major projects in the Philippines, including the Samal Island-Davao City Connector Project and the North & South Harbor Bridge.

PPPs are among the Marcos administration’s offers in enticing investors into the Philippines. Marcos, said the Palace, also highlighted how the Philippines “relaxed the rules to allow foreign contractors to bring in their own professionals with the aim of encouraging technology transfer.”

“President Marcos hopes the CCCC could assist the Philippines in carrying out projects that ensure environmental sustainability in the midst of the threats posed by climate change,” said the Palace.

In 2020, the CCCC was included in the US’s blacklist. Its inclusion, a senior State Department official told the Washington Post, had “various aims, including, of course, to impose costs on bad actors and to encourage all sorts of parties and institutions and governments around the world to assess the risk and reconsider business deals with the sort of predatory Chinese state-owned enterprises we have identified here.”

According to the South China Morning Post, the US sanctioned CCCC’s dredging subsidiary for helping “militarize” outposts in the South China Sea.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte, whose supposed gains Marcos vowed to continue when he ran in 2022, refused to be affected by the US’s blacklisting of the CCCC.

Marcos recently visited Beijing for a 48-hour state visit, his first outside Southeast Asia.

Marcos, on Monday, January 30, also met with the US-Philippines Society, a 2012-founded private sector organization that aims to “broaden and expand interaction and understanding” between the two countries. – Rappler.com

What you need to know about Marcos’ state visit to China