The public works and tourism departments have allocated P30.9 billion to develop vital tourism infrastructure across 16 regions in the country, as the government seeks to provide ease and comfort on transport for its projected 7.4 million tourists through 2018.
Under this year’s Tourism Road Infrastructure Program (TRIP), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Department of Tourism (DOT) are going to jointly develop 1,688 kilometers of tourism roads via 677 projects spread across 16 regions in the Philippines.
Among the high-impact tourism road projects in the 2018 program include access roads leading to Mapita Tribal Community in Pangasinan; New Clark City; Callao Caves in Tuguegarao City; Buscalan in Kalinga, which is also known as the home of the last mambabatok, Apo Whang Od; Seven Cities in Iloilo; La Paz, Zamboanga City; and Dahilayan Adventure Park in Bukidnon.
Also included in the list of high-impact tourism roads are the following: Asik-Asik Falls, North Cotabato; Surigao del Sur leading to the world-famous Hinatuan Enchanted River; circumferential roads in Taal, Batangas; San Jose, Romblon; and Island Garden City of Samal in Davao del Norte.
Coastal roads leading to nature and marine reserves in Pasacao-Balatan in Camarines Sur; Gilutongan and Nalusuan Marine Sanctuary in Cebu; and Canopy Forest in Eastern Samar are also part of the priority projects of TRIP.
For the last five years, the DPWH-DOT convergence program has successfully completed over 1,500 tourism roads nationwide through a P60-billion budget allocation.
It was pioneered in 2011 with the aim of constructing, upgrading, rehabilitating, and improving roughly 463 roads and bridges.
The new program, a successor of the Tourism Road Infrastructure Project Prioritization Criteria, is part of the 10-Point Socioeconomic Agenda of President Duterte.
It is also seen to complement other infrastructure projects, which are seen to usher the Philippines into the so-called Golden Age of Infrastructure.