The slew of infrastructure programs under the Duterte administration will create millions of jobs during and after construction, build a subway in Metro Manila, a railway in Mindanao and airports and bridges across the country, while the tax reform agenda will ensure equitable opportunities for everyone.

Appearing at yesterday’s media briefing in Malacanang, the government’s economic team presented finished, on-going and under development components of the P8 trillion “Build, Build, Build” program. But a crucial part of all these infrastructure modernization programs is the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or TRAIN Law, which is the enabler of BBB.

“Our optimism for the immense contribution of this program to national growth is not without solid bases,” Labor Secretary III said. He added, “Our data would show that the economy generated net employment of 625,000 last April or about 40,896,000 employed persons compared to the 40,271,000 employed for the same period last year. The single biggest contributor to this positive net employment generation is the construction sector.”

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade explained there are two job clusters to be created due to BBB. One group is during construction and the other is after the construction of the projects which will require personnel during operation.

Tugade said the direct and indirect employment to be generated by the infrastructure would reach 1.8 million.

Bello added in the industries sector alone, some 625,000 jobs were generated while the services sectors created another 742,000 net employment. These numbers offset the decline in job availability in the agriculture industry which was hit by recent natural disasters.

According to Tugade, the construction of the P51 billion (104.5 billion yen) Metro Manila subway project is on track to begin this year after Japan and the Philippines agreed to expedite its implementation. He said both parties signed the first tranche of the loan package in March.

“The original start of the subway project is next year. We are still on track. We are starting the groundbreaking and formal construction by the end of the year,” he said.

The much-anticipated project aims to construct three stations in Mindanao Avenue-Quirino Highway, Tandang Sora, and North Avenue and targets to become operational before President Duterte ends his term in 2022.

The transportation chief said that under his term, the Department of Transportation (DoTr) had completed eight airports in a span of two years. These are in Virac, Catanduanes; Lal-lo, Tuguegarao; Mactan, Cebu; Clark, Pampanga to name a few.

The DoTr also upgraded the capability of some of the airports with night-rated capacity, meaning those airports are now equipped to handle both daytime and nighttime landings.

This capability also allowed those airports to operate even during severe weather conditions.

Also, the DoTr installed an additional ten satellite tracking radar system to improve the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines’ facilities.