The Philippines will no longer pursue Chinese loans to fund three railway projects valued at more than $5 billion and has started discussions with other Asian countries for alternative financing deals.

“We saw that China appeared to be no longer interested, so we’ll look for other partners,” Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said in an interview at his office in Manila on Friday.

China had agreed to fund three railway projects located outside the Philippine capital during the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte who sought closer ties with Beijing. The government of his successor, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., reviewed the deals due to lack of progress from the Chinese side.

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno last month notified Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian in a letter that Manila “is no longer inclined to pursue” Chinese financing for the first phase of the Mindanao Railway Project, a 100-kilometer transport system that would traverse Duterte’s southern home region of Davao and which the government had valued at 81.7 billion pesos ($1.4 billion).