At a time of the unprecedented unemployment rate of 17.7 percent which translates to 7.3 million jobless Filipinos as of April, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) now says government’s Build, Build, Build (BBB) infrastructure program is expected to generate more than 1.5 million jobs this year despite the pandemic.
Mark Villar, DPWH secretary, said the continuous increase in infrastructure budget has led to massive employment generation across the country.
“This year, an estimated 1,525,342 of jobs will be generated from the 2020 budget,” said Villar.
He added workers employed under the BBB program were paid with not less than the minimum wage in each region.
“This massive BBB program aims to not only build roads, bridges, and other public infrastructure to spur economic development but also to provide local livelihood to the Filipino people,” said Villar.
By the end of 2020, a total of 6.57 million jobs will be generated from the BBB program, comprising of 911,034 jobs in 2016, 1.2 million in 2017, 1.7 million in 2018 and 1.2 million jobs in 2019.
In compliance with the construction safety guidelines released by the DPWH, constructions works for major infrastructure projects resumed last month.
Among the DPWH flagship projects supportive of the traffic decongestion program that resumed construction are the Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge connecting Mandaluyong City and Makati City, the Bonifacio Global City (BGC)-Ortigas Center Link Road Project which involves the construction of a 440-meter bridge that will connect Lawton avenue in Makati and Sta. Monica street in Pasig City, and the Binondo-Intramuros Bridge in Manila.
To date, the Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge and Binondo-Intramuros Bridge projects are 54 percent and 32 percent completed, respectively.
BGC-Ortigas Center Link Road Project is 51 percent complete, DPWH said. The link will be a traffic game changer as it will serve as an alternate route for motorists traveling from Ortigas central business district in Pasig to BGC in Taguig and vice versa.
DPWH said its right-of-way (ROW) task forces for flagship projects have intensified the ROW acquisition efforts to ensure timely completion of the project.
