The Duterte administration sees infrastructure spending to be lower this year due to the pandemic but is optimistic to ramp up spending by next year.
Vince Dizon, presidential adviser on Flagship Programs and Projects, said between 2017 and 2019, infrastructure spending was almost a trillion pesos on average per year, or roughly 6 percent of GDP.
“This (spending) clearly, took a hit, along with all the other sectors of the economy because of COVID-19 (new coronavirus disease 2019). For 2020, we were supposed to be spending more than 6 percent of GDP on infrastructure if not the COVID. This drastically went down to 4.5 percent, or roughly about P800 billion, which was even lower than the average for 2017, 2018 and 2019, “ Dizon said during the Public and Private Sector Updates on the Build, Build, Build Program yesterday.
“We need to increase spending infrastructure. We need to prioritize on sectors, in terms of infrastructure spending primarily transport water, energy, information and communication technology and social infrastructure, which includes health infrastructure especially during the pandemic,” Dizon added.
For 2021, Dizon said the spending may be lower than expected, “given the challenges that we face. “
“For 2022, hopefully we can hit more than P1 trillion which will roughly be around 5.1 percent of GDP,” Dizon added.
To date, the government has completed 121 airport projects, 424 commercial social and tourism port projects, 26,494 kilometers of road and 5,555 bridges.
The government expects to complete and start operation this year 10 projects that include airports, expressways, bridges and railways.
Clark International airport’s new passenger terminal will be inaugurated in mid-June this year and will start operation by third quarter.
San Miguel Corp.’s Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 project which started operation last December, is 98 percent complete and will be fully operationally by this quarter.
The Unified Grand Central Station or common station for the four railways system in Metro Manila is targeted to complete the portion of Trinoma in Quezon City by this quarter.
The Light Rail Transit East Extension will be completed also by this quarter while
Estrella-Pantaleon bridge and BGC to Ortigas Center link bridge are set to be completed within the second half this year.
Other major projects include the Central Luzon Link Expressway slated to be complete in third quarter, and the Bicol International Airport and Metro Rail Transit line 7.
