73% recognizes infra golden era

Some 69 percent of respondents said the administration is better in developing infrastructure.

The current administration has put up more and better projects compared to its predecessor, 73 percent of those polled in a recent Pulse Asia survey stated.

Of 1,200 respondents surveyed from 3 to 8 December, 25 percent indicated the present administration implemented the “same number of projects” compared to the previous government. Only less than two percent thought there were fewer projects.

“The Pulse Asia survey showed with the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program, the Duterte administration is on the right track in reversing the sorry state of public infrastructure,” Presidential Adviser for Flagship Programs and Projects Vince Dizon said.

The infrastructure buildup is actually a campaign of economic managers to recoup the lack of infrastructure in the previous regime as a result of underspending the budget by an estimated P1 trillion.

The build up program would cost a total of P8 trillion by 2022, or about P1.5 trillion a year, to spur economic growth and make the lives of Filipinos more comfortable.

Of the thousands of projects being implemented across the country, the economic team identified 100 game-changing flagship projects, which will all be started under the term of President Duterte.

“We will not stop here. Be assured that we will continue to push substantial implementation of ‘Build, Build, Build’ projects on the ground to make the lives of our people better and more comfortable,” Dizon said.

The same poll also indicated projects of the Duterte administration have been carried out “better” than previously. Some 69 percent of respondents said the administration is better in “developing infrastructure,” while 29 percent consider the program as being the “same” as that of the previous administration.

Only one percent said the current administration’s program for infrastructure was “worse.” Two percent of those surveyed replied they “can’t say” if Duterte’s term resulted to better projects.

Dizon also reported the National Economic and Development Authority-Investment Coordination Committee’s (NEDA-ICC) recent approval of eight major projects from the list of 100 infrastructure flagship projects.

These include two airports, the Davao International Airport and the Laguindingan Airport, the Metro Rail Transit (MRT)-4 that will run between Quezon City to Taytay, Rizal, elevated walkways to and from rail stations to be known as EDSA Greenways and the Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge.

Also approved by the NEDA-ICC were the Cebu-Mactan Bridge and Coastal Road Construction Project that would improve traffic and transport efficiency in Mandaue City and Lapu Lapu City, the 32.47-kilometer Panay-Guimaras Negros Inter-island Bridge, and the Davao City Coastal Road, including Bucana bridge.

Proof of the improved projects under the current regime was the recent gain in the Philippines’ ranking in World Bank’s 2020 Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Report from 124th place to 95th position.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the jump in the country’s ranking in the EODB report showed the “most significant improvement in both rank and score”.

“The dramatic improvement is reassuring although, for us, hardly surprising,” he said citing the infrastructure campaign and laws that help cement fiscal achievements such as the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Services Act, the Rice Tariffication Law, the Philippine Identification System Act and the National Payment Systems Act.

The finance chief also cited several fiscal sustainability reforms like the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program and the initiatives targeted to improve the economy’s financial resilience against natural disasters.