By Bernadette D. Nicolas & Butch Fernandez
DESPITE spending a trillion pesos in its massive infrastructure program, the Duterte administration is still “not happy” with the pace of implementation of its projects, deeming it “still slow.”
Presidential Adviser on Flagship Projects Vivencio “Vince” Dizon, concurrently the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) president and CEO, admitted on Wednesday that the government is not contented with its performance in its infrastructure program. This, he said, pushed them to revise the list of flagship projects under its P8-trillion “Build, Build, Build” program.
However, Dizon still disagrees with Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon’s remark that the Build, Build, Build program of the administration is a “dismal failure,” saying the increase in infrastructure spending has led to economic growth.
“We disagree that it is a dismal failure and the numbers I think speak for themselves. Infrastructure spending is way, way up. In fact, more than double and this has resulted in gains in the economy. It’s very clear. But doon sa tanong na kontento ba kayo, hindi po [on the question of, ‘are we contented?’ the answer is no],” Dizon said in a Palace economic briefing.
“Kasi kung kuntento po kami, wala na kaming gagawin na pagrepaso ng listahan na ito. Basta bahala na lang kung ano nalang natapos. Kung kuntento po ang Pangulo at ang kanyang team. Pero dahil nga po di kami kuntento, nagkakaroon ng reasssessment [Because if we were satisfied, we wouldn’t be reviewing the list, and simply await whatever is finished. But because the President and his team are not contented, there was a reassessment],” he added.
Drilon raps ‘underspending’
Relatedly, Senate Minority Leader Drilon on Wednesday deplored government underspending by the Duterte administration, warning against its potential backlash on the economy.
“The issue is the underspending and the fact that only nine projects have been started is just a manifestation of this underlying problem,” Drilon said in an interview Wednesday, noting that “20 percent of our GDP is dependent on government spending.”
Therefore, Drilon stressed, “it is important that the budgeted expenditures should be disbursed, because that goes into our GDP, creates employment.”
He pointed to a publication of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) where “they recognized that underspending is a problem. They recognized it as a challenge that the government has to face. In several instances, they have cited underspending.”
Drilon said the DBM itself said the country’s real GDP slowed down to 5.6 percent in the first quarter of 2019, noting that “the slowdown is largely attributable to government underspending in the first quarter.”
Elsewhere in the DBM report, “it is underspending that is cited as a reason [for] why we are not meeting our program or target,” said Drilon, adding that the COA, in its report, stated that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has a disbursement rate of 34.1 percent in 2017 and 39.7 percent in 2018, and the Department of Transportation (DOTR) has a disbursement rate of 25.6 percent in 2017 and 23.8 percent in 2018.
Drilon added: “What does this mean? For every P100 budget, they are only spending, let’s say in the case of DOTR, P25.6. In 2017, they only spent P23 out of P100.”
Therefore, he stressed, the contribution of government spending to economic growth is not being met, “not because there are no funds available but because the fund appropriated is not being spent. It is a simple as that.”
Drilon said he asked officials concerned and was told, “There are many factors they say they meet and among which is the right-of-way problem. We cannot [have] excuses every year; there has to be a program so that we can accelerate our disbursement.”
Drilon debunked
In debunking Drilon’s claim, Dizon said the Duterte administration has already spent a trillion pesos in infrastructure compared to P380 billion in the Aquino administration and P100 billion in the Arroyo administration.
But Dizon also conceded that they chose the wrong ones to highlight in the initial list of flagship projects.
According to the status of infrastructure flagship projects from the National Economic and Development Authority, nine were indeed ongoing construction, while only two were completed as of July 31, 2019, even though the Neda Board approved 37 out of 75 flagship projects.
Meanwhile, he stressed the need to revise the initial list of flagship projects as they wanted to be able to do more and speed up the infrastructure program in the second half of the term of the President.
“It’s still slow. We acknowledge that — it is still slow. We got to do it faster. We got to get these things done faster,” he said, adding that the biggest challenge for infrastructure implementation is still the right-of-way issue.
From 75 flagship projects in its initial list, the revised list now includes 100 projects.
Dizon said more than 20 projects which were mostly at the feasibility study stage were already “shelved” by the government as some of these were found out to be not yet feasible for now. “We don’t wanna build something that is not yet feasible as of this time. They could be feasible later on, but not yet as of this time. So, we had to revisit and put in projects that are urgent that we can already start now,” he said.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes