THERE will now be roughly 100 flagship infrastructure projects under the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program after the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) revised the list to take out some connectivity facilities and replace them with road projects.
In a news briefing on Friday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said smaller projects will take the place of proposed bridges under the state’s P8-trillion infrastructure plan. After the Neda evaluated the flagship projects, it decided to remove some bridges from the list on technological, economic and financial viability reasons.
The bridges taken out of the government’s priority would have connected islands in the Bicol region, Visayas and Mindanao, particularly Samar to Sorsogon, Leyte to Surigao and Cebu to Bohol.
There will be more of the smaller projects, Pernia said, “but still game changing, especially for the regions that will be included, which we did not include in the first list.” Pernia added, “What we have done is take out certain projects that are impossible given the engineering technology [that they require], or maybe the technology [to build them] we don’t have yet.”
For example, he said, the Matnog, Sorsogon to Samar bridge was found to be “unfeasible from the feasibility study in terms of economic viability and financial viability [so] that was turned down. The Leyte to Surigao long bridge is also very deep and really just very challenging. Also going to be very costly is the Cebu to Bohol bridge.”
In replacement, the Neda inserted in the government’s flagship list a number of road projects being undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Although these roads are smaller in scale—and most likely in cost—than the bridges, Pernia said their impact to the economy is still “game changing.”
The addition of these road projects will bring the number of priority infrastructure under the Build, Build, Build program to about 100, from just 75 at present.
“The [list of flagship projects] will be about 100, but not all of them [can be finished] within this administration. Most of them will be either [completed] or would have been started substantially such that it would incentivize the next administration to continue,” Pernia said.
The revised list also includes more public-private partnership (PPP) projects, which the government used to shun in favor of financing from the national budget and foreign sources, multilateral lenders included.
There was some hesitancy toward PPP projects before, Pernia noted. But, over time, he said, “the minds tend to adjust to reality and that’s what’s happening. Also, my philosophy [is] we should look at the bigger picture. Let’s not be obsessed over little gains to be made by the private-sector proponents or little lost in the part of the government, [but] let’s look at the bigger picture.”
Among the PPP projects upgraded to the government’s flagship list are the P735-billion New Manila International Airport implemented by the San Miguel Corp. and the rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) proposed by a consortium of seven firms.
The government relies on these private sector-led projects to address the worsening congestion at Naia. The New Manila International Airport in Bulacan, specifically, can serve at least 100 million passengers annually with its four runways, eight taxiways and three passenger terminals once it is operational within five years.
With the changes introduced in the priority list, Pernia said the cost of the whole Build, Build, Build program—initially valued at roughly P8 trillion—was adjusted as well.