DPWH: Over 4 million infra-related jobs created

MANILA, Philippines — The Build Build Build infrastructure program of the Duterte administration has generated four million jobs in the past three years, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) reported yesterday.

Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said a total of 4,199,228 jobs were generated from road, bridge, flood-control and other infrastructure projects of his department nationwide, with almost half of the numbers created from projects funded under last year’s national budget.

Villar added that the DPWH hired 1.087 million workers in 2016, 1.281 million in 2017 and 1.830 million last year.

“Thanks to the huge increase in DPWH budget since President Duterte took over, we were able to provide jobs to millions of Filipinos across the country,” Villar said in a statement.

“Through BBB, contractors hire at least 50 percent of unskilled and 30 percent of skilled labor requirement from the locality where the projects are located within an average of four months per project, 22 days per month. These workers are earning an average daily wage of P550 and are helping us build vital infrastructure projects across the country,” he added.

The DPWH chief also said another one million workers are expected to benefit from the infrastructure programs of the department under this year’s budget.

“We hope that this massive infrastructure program of the government will be able to solve traffic woes and improve connectivity among towns and cities and will further improve livelihood nationwide,” Villar added.