THE national government aims to complete 29 more of its infrastructure flagship projects (IFPs) during the remaining term of President Duterte, data released by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) showed.
In a briefing on Friday, BCDA President and CEO Vivencio “Vince” B. Dizon said these projects amount to P238.48 billion.
This is part of the latest list of 119 IFPs, according to the BCDA. The IFPs will amount to a total of P4.73 trillion.
Are we done with the work of the Duterte administration? Not yet. So many things have yet to be done. That’s what Secretaries Mark [Villar], Karl [Nograles] and Art [Tugade] have been saying; everything must go on. There is no one administration that can complete these projects. You cannot imagine the complexity and the difficulty of infrastructure projects,” Dizon said. “Our message to the public is, President Duterte has started this; and this should continue. Let’s not stop it,” he added in a mix of Filipino and English.
With the 11 IFPs completed by the Duterte administration, this means only 40 of the IFPs would have been completed by the national government.
Of the 119 projects, 51 projects will be completed by 2023 and 28 will remain in the pipeline. Dizon said this is a good place to start to jump-start the infrastructure project of the succeeding administration.
The 51 ongoing projects that would likely be completed by 2023 amount to P3.28 trillion, while the 28 in the pipeline amount to P1.086 trillion.
Earlier, the National Economic and Development Authority expressed confidence that the Duterte administration would be able to complete over 3,000 big and small infrastructure projects by next year.
In a mid-year briefing co-presented by the Economic Journalist’s Association of the Philippines (EJAP) and Filinvest REIT FR on Tuesday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said these projects could be accomplished despite delays caused by the pandemic.
Chua said 314 of the projects were completed as of June 2019 and 2,800 are set to be completed by 2022. These comprise part of the medium-term Public Investment Program (PIP) of the administration.
Chua explained that majority of the infrastructure projects being undertaken by the administration are “small-scale” and are largely locally funded infrastructure undertakings.
The number of projects expected to be completed by next year still does not include the flagships or the game-changing infrastructure projects of the administration.These projects, including the infrastructure flagship projects, comprise the PIP. The government intended to spend P7.74 trillion for infrastructure between 2016 and 2022 under the PIP for 2017 to 2022.