Amid the challenging environment in the global economy, DOTr Secretary Jimmy Bautista is pursuing big infra projects seen propeling the Philippines to middle-income status with a mindset that has earned plaudits for his stewardship then in the nation’s flag carrier, Philippine Airlines. The low-key secretary, tapped to head the Department of Transportation, unveiled his thrust for the agency in a testimonial that the University of the East tendered on Monday night at the Makati Diamond Residences.
Bautista, who was part of the team that nurtured the university back to financial health after a catastrophic slide when a religious organization took control of it in the early ’90s, shared his vision for the country on rails, airports, seaports, busways, inter-operability of tollways and other modes of transport. These infra projects will see the Philippines journey to middle-income status and to achieve this, the DOTr secretary said the agency vowed to expedite right-of-way issues that have heretofore delayed major infra projects before. In a sense, Secretary Bautista is providing a private sector mindset for the public good.
The infra projects seem daunting but Bautista told his fellow Warriors that a “source of his strength is that you have my back” and vowed to “achieve what the department had set out to do.” Bautista has a soft heart for the University of the East having been there for 31 years and a month until he was selected to head the agency and that is why he was game for the testimonial though he has just arrived a day early from a trip in New York with President Bongbong Marcos Jr. to woo foreign investors.
In a way, Bautista is “benchmarking” his thrust at the DOTr to the programs that he adapted with the late banking icon P.O. Domingo that saw the transformation of UE from a debt-ridden school to a cash-rich university with new buildings. A fortnight ago, he said he witnessed the signing ceremonies for a Cavite-Sangley airport and aside from that he bared the upcoming completion of the P715 billion Bulacan airport “to decongest the NAIA airport. Also in the pipeline are the Cebu International Seaport, Davao rail line, and Metro Manila subway. And there are air assets expected to be purchased, as well as new vessels to beef up the country’s maritime industry.
Aside from this, Bautista bared the department’s push for new rail lines that, with the new airports and seaports, will “perk up the agriculture and tourism industry.” The push for agriculture and tourism, seen insulating the economy from the pernicious effects of the pandemic, is akin to Bautista’s program then in PAL where he earned for the airline the Four Star Major Regional Airline award in 2019 from the Airline Passenger Experience Association, a US-based travel organization that tracked travelers’ experience about airlines. It can be said that his DOTr stint will be the apex of his many accomplishments in life.
Consider the impact of some of the infra projects that he enumerated in his address before his beloved “alma mater”: The North-South rail line from Tutuban to Malolos will cut travel time from an hour and a half to just 35 minutes; the new Cebu seaport will process 14,404 container vans daily; the rail extension of LRT line 1 to Cavite will shorten travel time from Baclaran to Bacoor to just 25 minutes; the unified grand central that will host LRT1, MRT 3 and MRT 7 will offer intermodal passenger access to buses; and the Carousel bay will be modernized to allow PWD-friendly walkways, bicycle access, and tons of CCTV cameras.
“These are ambitious projects,” said Bautista, but he vowed to achieve what he had set out to do, backed by his desire to be of help to the country’s economic resurgence. He has provided much inspiration to this love-of-country paradigm. One sees him at the budget hearing appealing for legislative action for the infra programs of the department, at other times he is at the training pool of a new PNR coach, and still others in a huddle with his undersecretaries for a new approach to old problems.
The infra projects are expected to provide the buffer zone for the country to overcome the pandemic’s effects. And it is comforting to see someone head a department willing to overcome the challenge and providing the kind of private sector mentality to untangle the bureaucracy’s slow-poke mindset. That is what Secretary Bautista conveyed to the UE community and beyond.