01 Sep DPWH Proposed P420B Budget To Achieve “Golden Age of Infrastructure” in the Next Six Years
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is allocating about P420 billion for 2017’s infrastructure programs in line with the administration’s goal to make the following six years the “golden age of infrastructure.”
Mark A. Villar, Public Works Secretary stated during the 2017 budget deliberations at the House of Representatives, “The growth of the infrastructure spending has been almost exponential….In 2011, the spending for…the infrastructure was P90 billion. In 2016, it increased four times at P360 billion and next year in 2017 we propose a budget of P420 billion. The infrastructure spending under the Duterte administration is the most ambitious infrastructure program in the history of our country.”
The administration intends to allocate P759.6 billion which is equivalent to 5% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for infrastructure programs next year, 2017. And for the following six years, the government also aims to increase infrastructure spending as much as 7% of GDP.
Villar as part of the Public Work department presented the Rural Road Development Program, where it covers the development and construction of local roads to tourist destinations, seaports, airports, and ecozones. This program also seeks to implement agricultural infrastructure projects which include farm-to-market roads to improve connections to production areas or water system project to utilize water resources.
Villar said, “These basically are convergence programs identified by [the] Department of Tourism, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Transportation….Usually, the focus of the DPWH is national roads, but under this program, we can upgrade road[s] as long as they are identified by the respective agencies.”
The agency also plans to solve traffic congestion in two to three years by widening the national roads, constructing more bypass and diversion roads, and connection national road gaps.
Villar added, “I think there’s a strong pipeline and we’ll be working 24/7 to make sure that our roads will be decongested.”
Implementation of the Mindanao Logistics and Infrastructure Network (MLIN) which Villar described as “one of the most ambitious infrastructure program” will “unleash the potential of Mindanao.”
Villar said, “[The MLIN] — that is something that we want to finish with[in] two years so they can catch up with the rest of the country. We want to unleash the potential of Mindanao. The President feels that the potential of Mindanao is great.”
He added that the MLIN project is designed to boost economic growth and for faster transportation of goods and services in Mindanao. This project is to be implemented next year with a proposed budget of P39.93 billion.
Development of 24 roads in Mindanao is also part of the MLIN project.
Under the proposed 2017 national budget, DPWH is given P458.61 billion which has increased by P61.5 million from this year’s budget with P397.11 billion.
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