Golden age of infrastructure still on track — Tugade

MANILA, Philippines — The golden age of infrastructure in the country is still on track despite the disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade.

“I want the Filipino people to know that we have never stopped working. We have kept the ball rolling to deliver the much-needed transport infrastructure projects of the country. Build Build Build continues,” Tugade said.

The Duterte administration has sought to bring the Philippines into a so-called golden age of infrastructure through its massive infrastructure development program known as Build Build Build (BBB).

“But with the raging COVID-19 pandemic, some of you perhaps will ask, are we anywhere near the touted golden age of infrastructure, or are we in Build Build Build, now in the four years of the Duterte administration, just have gone by?” the transport chief said.

“While the critics have expressed doubts, skepticism and discouragement, we will give the people hope, confidence and assurance through concrete actions. We want to tell them that the Build Build Build is there and the golden age of infrastructure, which we have given birth when President Duterte assumed, is on the way,” Tugade said.

Given the significant impact of the pandemic to the economy, the government intends to maintain and accelerate its massive infrastructure program as it sees infrastructure projects as key in the economic recovery given their high multiplier effect.

“The Build Build Build projects are the Duterte administration’s legacy for generations and we’ll never stop working harder and even faster for this ambitious program, but not just to remain as an ambition, but rather to be realized as a vision, to be realized as a proud crowning glory for the Duterte administration,” Tugade said.

Last month, a working paper published by the Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development titled “Overhauling Land Transportation in the New Normal and Beyond” said the government should put on hold several railway and airport flagship projects under the BBB program to make way for lower-cost and more inclusive road transport projects amid the pandemic.

The DOTr, however, said the railway and airport flagship projects under the BBB program that were flagged for viability by Ateneo de Manila University economists are needed to support the country’s economic recovery.

“These BBB projects do not only bring the promise of a better life to every Filipino when they are completed in the next few years, these projects are also instrumental now in restoring livelihoods and business lost due to the pandemic, with the hundreds of thousands of direct, induced, and indirect jobs that these projects will create,” the DOTr said.

“COVID-19 should not be used to add to the long line of excuses to further delay the DOTr’s catch-up work on closing this infrastructure gap, as the unvetted paper

appears to be suggesting. Instead, COVID-19 should serve as a reminder of how critically important it is to finish soonest these BBB flagship projects,” the DOTr said.

The DOTr on Saturday led the virtual contract signing for the first two  contract packages for PNR Clark Phase 2, a project which forms part of the P777.55 billion North-South Commuter Railway.

“The signing is very timely. The civil works contract will help kickstart economic revival in the Philippines over the next 12 months as the country faces the pandemic,” Asian Development Bank Southeast Asia director general Ramesh Subramaniam said.

“Under the railway project, we estimate that 24,000 local construction jobs will be directly created during the next three years and another at least 14,000 jobs to be created for operating the railway system,” Subramaniam said.