The Department of Transportation plans to revise its proposed 2022 budget after the bulk of the funding approved by the Department of Budget and Management was allotted for the railway sector, an official said over the weekend.
“When the DOTR requested budget from DBM, we requested for all of our sectors, not such for rail but for aviation, maritime and road, but unfortunately most of the budget that was approved by DBM was for railway projects,” Transportation Undersecretary for Railway Timothy John Batan said.
“We are going to request for budget to be reinstated for the aviation, maritime and the road sector. We intent to rectify that together with our partners in the Congress and the Senate,” he said.
Batan, however, cited a need to push for more rail projects and close the gap that was created in the railways sector by decades of compounded underinvestment and to catch up with other countries in terms of railways infrastructure.
A survey by the World Bank in 2019 showed the Philippines ranked 119th or at the bottom of the 119 countries surveyed in terms of length of operational railways infrastructure.
The DBM approved P110 billion for the railway sector, while the road sector only received P1 million.
The DOTR proposed over P19.8-billion budget to DBM to fund various road transport sector projects nationwide for the year 2022.
“We agree that there should be more funds allotted for the road sector. One million would not be enough for the road sector,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said.
For locally funded projects for the road sector, the DOTR proposed P13.2 billion, while foreign-assisted projects would amount to P6.61 billion.
It said of the total 13.2 billion for local road projects, it allotted P10 billion for service contracting program; P1.5 billion for active transportation infrastructure and related programs; P800.71 million for PUV modernization; P472.97 million for EDSA Busway Project; P125.91 million for Makati-BGC Greenways; P40 million for the feasibility study of Ilocos Norte Transport Hub; P10.71 million for Taguig City Integrated Terminal Exchange; and P100 million for feasibility study of Bataan Bus Rapid Transit.
The agency also proposed counter-part funding for the FAPs such as the EDSA Greenways Project (P243.47 million), Davao High Priority Bus System (3.59 billion), Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project (2.47 billion) and the Metro Manila BRT Line Project-Quezon Ave. (P300 million).