The Duterte administration needed at least P8 trillion to close the infrastructure gap over the next six years, with the Department of Finance given the task of generating enough funds to ensure the completion of the public investment program.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III told a business forum that an initial list of 18 big-ticket items worth a total of P427.5 billion have already been approved by the National Economic and Development Authority for this unprecedented infrastructure buildup.
“This was more than what the previous administration undertook during its entire tenure in office,” he said.
He said this underscored the resolve of President Duterte to realize his administration’s goal of accelerating infrastructure spending in a bid to help pull down the poverty rate to below 15 percent by the time he steps aside in 2022.
“Building infra, as you are aware, has the highest multiplier effect on the economy. It is also indispensable to transforming the nature of our growth so that it is led by investments instead of consumption. Investment-led growth, in turn, will create quality jobs. This is the predicate for inclusive growth,” Dominguez said at the Wallace Forum held last Friday in Makati City.
“Budget Secretary Ben Diokno estimates that we need to invest about PHP8 trillion over the next six years on infra to be at par with our neighbors. To put this amount in perspective, the total resources of the Philippine financial system is PHP16.2 trillion,” Dominguez said.
“That is a huge price tag, to be sure, and it is my happy duty to find the revenues to support that,” he added.
Dominguez said the country is fortunate that the Philippines’ development partners and other countries in the region are supportive of the Duterte administration’s plans as they are “confident this government means business and is determined to work hard to get things done.”
He said: “By some estimates, we are at least a couple of decades behind our neighbors with regard to infra. We need everything from new airport capacity, a cheaper and more efficient power sector, actually functioning rail systems and even new digital pathways. We need more public health care facilities and classrooms. According to some planning experts, we do not only need to decongest cities but do so by building new urban centers.”
Dominguez said the government is financing its unparalleled infra program through a mixture of soft loans, grants, official development assistance and the public-private partnership program.
The Duterte administration’s approved major infra projects so far include the improvement of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the South Line of the North-South Railway Project, which will be funded through the PPP; the Asian Development Bank-supported Metro Manila Bus Rapid Transit; the Metro Manila Flood Management Project, which is backed by the World Bank; New Cebu International Container Port, which will get its funding from Korean ODA; and the Panglao Airport, which is supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, Dominguez said.
He said these projects will be implemented with transparency and proper accountability, as President Duterte had already issued an executive order on Freedom of Information covering the executive branch. (PNA)
