The Philippine government has drawn up a list of 14 priority infrastructure projects for rollout over the next five years in a bid to facilitate connectivity and mobility in the country and hike infrastructure spending.
These projects intend to achieve President Rodrigo Duterte’s goals of more jobs, lower costs of goods, and improved traffic flow and transportation services.
Socioeconomic Secretary Ernesto Pernia in a press conference on November 3 said that for infrastructure spending, the administration has a budget of P800 billion for 2017 and a target expenditure of P8 trillion during its six-year term.
Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar, in the same press con, said the government seeks to hike infrastructure spending to between 5.4% and 7% of the gross domestic product (GDP) to bring it on a par with the budgets of other Asian neighbors, which spend up to 8% to 10% of their GDP on infrastructure.
Involved in the 14 big infra initiatives to be executed in the next five years are DPWH, Department of Transportation (DOTr), and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).
Villar said DPWH will be involved in the Santa Monica-Bonifacio Global City-Lawton Link Bridge, UP-Ateneo-Miriam Viaduct, Iloilo-Guimaras-Negros-Cebu Link Bridge, Davao City Bypass Road Project, and North Luzon Expressway-South Luzon Expressway (NLEX-SLEX) Connector Road Project.
The Sta. Monica Link Bridge is seen to reduce traffic on EDSA and C5 by 35% and trim by 100,000 the vehicular traffic coming from BGC, while the viaduct targets an 80% decrease in traffic around the three universities.
The Iloilo-Guimaras-Negros-Cebu Link Bridge, meanwhile, will be the “most ambitious” undertaking of DPWH, spanning 10 kilometers to connect the four provinces at a construction cost of $1 billion. Another major undertaking for next year is the Davao City bypass road that will cut the two-hour travel time from Digos, Davao Del Sur to Panabo, Davao Del Norte down to 45 minutes.
An additional 20 bypass road projects in major cities around the country are also being eyed.
The NLEX-SLEX connector road, meantime, will cut travel time from Alabang, Muntinlupa, to Balintawak to just 30 minutes and reduce traffic on EDSA. Trucks coming from Manila port can use the ramp leading to the connector road from C3 to go to NLEX or SLEX, decongesting roads in Metro Manila.
Transport projects
On the part of DOTr, Secretary Arthur Tugade enumerated as the agency’s major infrastructure projects the following: Manila-Clark Railway project, Clark-Subic Cargo Rail, Metro Manila Bus Rapid Train System, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System from BGC to Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Mindanao Railway, Regional Airport Development, and Roll-On/Roll-Off Ports Development.
The Manila-Clark Railway covering about 85 kilometers will guarantee a mere one-hour ride from Manila to Clark International Airport (CRK), Tugade said.
A complementary rail project to the Manila-Clark Railway that will start next year is the 60-kilometer Clark-Subic Cargo Rail that will connect CRK to Subic port. This is part of the government’s concept of creating a logistics hub in Northern Luzon, Tugade noted. He added that the railway will benefit both CRK and Subic port while decongesting Metro Manila.
Another major project of the DOTr is the Mindanao Railway, a 2,000-kilometer development expected to cut travel time from Davao to Surigao and Cagayan de Oro to just two hours. Tugade said the first phase, which is 200 kilometers in length, is targeted for completion by the end of the current administration’s term.
Complementing the rail systems are the bus rapid transit systems that are scheduled to start next year, the transport chief said. The projects are to be done in partnership with the BCDA, which owns some lands that the systems will cover.
For airports, Tugade said airport developments outside of greater Manila will be pursued.
For seaports, the goal is to achieve “integrated mobility and comfort” and create ports for RoRo vessel operations.
BCDA, meanwhile, will push through with the previous government’s plan to create the Clark Green City and construct a new passenger terminal in CRK.
Pernia added that the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board, which Duterte chairs, is set to approve this year seven more infrastructure projects for agriculture and transportation. Included in the list is the North-South Railway Project (South Line) that will link Manila to Sorsogon at a cost of about P200 billion.
Meanwhile, Tugade said the government will soon open a Freedom of Information (FOI) portal for public monitoring of projects.
The FOI portal will include the status of projects, the contractors, the kinds of investments made, copies of contracts and memorandums, project issues and risks, related orders, and jobs created by each project.
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