ONE quality that has set the Duterte administration apart from its predecessor is its vision. While its predecessor squandered time and energy in persecuting its political enemies, this administration has set an audacious goal to usher in a “golden age of infrastructure” that will create jobs, spur investments and reduce poverty.
Despite its bluster, the previous administration ended its term with only seven major infrastructure projects completed under its vaunted public-private partnership program.
In contrast, the Duterte administration hopes to spend up to P8 trillion on its Build, Build, Build program that includes 75 flagship projects comprised of six airports, nine railways, 32 roads and bridges and four seaports. All these will create more jobs, help lower production costs, improve rural incomes, encourage new investments, and make the transport of people and goods more efficient.
The government also aims to build four energy facilities that will ensure stable power supply at lower prices; 10 water resource projects and irrigation systems to improve agricultural output; and five flood control facilities that will help protect vulnerable communities.
The potential is immense.
In May, a top official of the Asian Development Bank observed that the Philippines was poised to meet its target to reduce poverty from 22 percent today to 14 percent when President Rodrigo Duterte leaves office in 2022 as a result of Build, Build, Build.
Road projects, especially in the countryside, can help spur growth in small and medium enterprises, said ADB Director General for Southeast Asia Ramesh Subramaniam, adding that he has not seen this kind of an infrastructure push in his last 20 years in ADB Manila.
University of Asia and the Pacific co-founder and economist Bernardo Villegas observed this month that the administration had “a great deal of absorptive capacity” to pursue the infrastructure program, which he said was “light-years ahead” of those of previous governments.
With the resolve of the current administration to implement its massive infrastructure program, Filipinos can expect to see gains in the next few years, Villegas added.
Delays could throw a spanner in the works, however.
The government has over 2,000 infrastructure projects in the pipeline and the the National Economic and Development Authority has identified 75 high-impact flagship projects. By Neda’s timetable, 31 of these are supposed to start this year, but so far, only seven have begun.
Delays in obtaining official development assistance are part of the problem.
Inefficiencies among the agencies directly involved in the infrastructure projects, as reported by the Commission on Audit, are also problematic.
President Rodrigo Duterte has expressed some impatience himself over the delays and has said he will hold his Cabinet secretaries responsible if projects do not proceed as planned.
As he gives his third State of the Nation Address today, we hope the President reiterates this call for urgent action to push Build, Build, Build forward toward its ambitious goals, and specifies how he will remove the obstacles along the way.