The Department of Finance (DOF) has reported that 10 infrastructure projects out of the 75 big-ticket flagship projects under the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) program are now moving to construction phase within the year.
Data obtained from the DOF showed that the 10 projects taunted to usher the construction phase of the so-called Golden Age of Infrastructure are worth P59.759 billion.
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III earlier said that of the 75 high-impact infrastructure projects under the BBB program, 35 have already gone through the approval process through the National Economic and Development Authority Board.
The projects to be undertake by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) include the Binondo-Intramuros Bridge through the aid of Chinese grants with a project cost of P4.607 billion; the Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge, also through the aid of Chinese grants with a project cost of P1.367 billion; the Panguil Bay Bridge Project, under a loan from South Korea with a project cost of P4.858 billion; the improvement of the remaining sections along Pasig River from Delpan Bridge to Napindan Channel through official development assistance with a project cost of P1 billion.
In funding its infrastructure projects, the Philippine government has adopted the hybrid model of the public-private partnership (PPP) that utilizes a combination of funds from the National Treasury, inflows from ODAs and funds raised from bond floats at investment-grade rates.
The projects being implemented by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, on the other hand, include: the Clark Green City Government Center through a PPP with a project cost of P1.780 billion; the Clark Green City Commercial Center also through a PPP with a project cost of P850 million; and the Clark Green City Mixed-Income Housing also through PPP with a project cost of P3.331 billion.
Earlier, economic managers explained that they are not inclined to stick solely to the PPP model, and would rather prefer the hybrid model, which, they said, is more flexible in that it can speed up delivery and completion.
For the Department of Transportation (DOTr), the projects already in the construction phase include the New Bohol Airport in its operations and maintenance concession through a PPP model with total project cost of P2.335 billion; and the Mindanao Rail Project (Phase 1)—Tagum Davao Digos Segment through a Chinese loan and funding from the General Appropriations Act with a total project cost
of P35.257 billion.
The government plans to spend around P8 trillion to P9 trillion on infrastructure projects under the Duterte administration or until 2022, with the government eyeing to spend P1.1 trillion on big-ticket infrastructure projects this year.
The 10th project that is being implemented by the National Irrigation Administration is the Chico River Pump Irrigation Project through a Chinese loan with the project cost amounting to P4.372 billion.
In May this year, the Department of Budget and Management reported that government spending on infrastructure rose by 95.9 percent for the month of April to P65.6 billion, driven by road-construction projects undertaken by the DPWH in line with the government’s BBB infrastructure program. The April 2018 spending represented a near doubling of the P33.5 billion recorded in the same month for 2017.
