The “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) program, touted as the most ambitious infrastructure development scheme of the Duterte administration, will not only generate jobs during the construction of vital facilities in the Philippines, but will also create employment after it, and spawn more of indirect ones.
Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said this is the contribution of the infrastructure program in combating unemployment across the three main islands of the country.
“There are different aspects to employment—while the infrastructure projects are being built, we will need project based employees. Then there are jobs to be created for the operations and maintenance of these infrastructure,” he said.
Tugade added that this will also generate more jobs in the retail industry, as construction of much-needed infrastructure will also cause more businesses to sprout, thereby generating more jobs in the retail and services sectors.
“There is an overriding and multiplying effect once these infrastructure projects are completed,” Tugade said.
Sunday saw the BBB team organizing job caravan in Pasay City, wherein 40 employers accepted résumés and application papers, conducted interviews, and hired people for vacancies on engineering, architecture and other construction-related segments, such as accounting, tech and customer service.
“We can help boost the economy with this program as we will create jobs and new businesses,” Tugade said.
Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said economic managers estimate that the whole BBB program will generate as many as 1.2 million jobs each year. It can hit up to as much as 2 million, given the need for more jobs for the repatriated Filipinos from the Middle East.
“The jobs that will be created will no only be created by the BBB program, but also as a result of the program,” Bello said.
However, the Philippines is in the midst of a labor shortage. In 2017 jobs in the construction sector reached 3.59 million workers, or about 158,000 more than the 3.31 million construction workers in 2016. Labor shortage that year was at 120,000 employees.
‘Upper middle-class economy’
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III noted that the initiative will help propel the Philippines into an upper-middle economy by the end of the Duterte administration, as it closes the infrastructure gap—that for former economic managers then tagged as a crisis—in the country.
“The Duterte administration is pursuing a Comprehensive Tax Reform Program to modernize Philippine taxation and further sharpen the country’s competitiveness while putting in place a steady revenue stream to fund BBB along with socioeconomic programs to reduce poverty to 14 percent over the medium term,” he said.
Infrastructure spending, according to Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, will be accelerated to 7.3 percent in 2022 to address the “dismal state” of Philippine infrastructure
“Accordingly, we have committed to spend P8 trillion to P9 trillion for the BBB program until 2022,” he said. “This ‘golden age of infrastructure’ will not only build better road networks, airports and bridges, but it will also build better lives for Filipinos now and in the future.”
This, according to Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia, will result in more economic opportunities, noting that job creation will help improve the country’s economic standing.
“As the government increases spending on infrastructure, we are expecting additional employment of around 1.8 million by 2022,” he said. “We will continue to pursue programs that will give Filipinos the chance to realize their long-term aspirations.”
The BBB program lists 70 priority infrastructure projects that are aimed—more or less—to be completed before President Duterte bows out of office in 2022.