DPWH on the mark

Halfway through the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, the ambitious infrastructure program of his administration dubbed as “Build, Build, Build” Infrastructure Program has already breached the 50 percent completion rate. That is as far as the flagship projects under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) are concerned, says Secretary Mark Villar.

In his state of the nation address (SONA) last Monday at the joint opening sessions of the 18th Congress, President Duterte made special mention of his Cabinet economic team that included Villar whom he credited for his administration’s various infrastructure programs that have kicked robust economic activities all around the country. 

Before the President’s SONA, Villar along with Department of Transportation (DOTR) Secretary Arturo Tugade, ceremonially opened to vehicular traffic a portion of the Skyway extension project last Monday. He promised that this would be about 95 percent complete by the end of this year. The Cabinet economic team is headed by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez.

“Through the Build, Build, Build Program in emerging economic hubs outside Metro Manila, this will swiftly gain ground, thanks to the efforts of the economic team led by Secretary Dominguez. Hard at work in the interconnection of our islands and cities by air, land, and sea are Secretaries Tugade and Villar,” the President declared in his SONA.

So we have invited the DPWH Secretary as our featured guest at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, or two days after the SONA to discuss in detail some of these accomplishments as mentioned by the President. Jamie Sugay, communications director of Habitat for Humanity Philippines, joined us as reactor in our weekly breakfast news forum at Café Adriatico in Remedios Circle in Malate.

Speaking for Habitat, Sugay urged the DPWH Secretary to include in their Build, Build, Build program the construction of access roads, especially in socialized housing projects located in far-flung locations outside urban centers like Metro Manila. Sugay echoed laments of low-income families who moved into these socialized housing projects the lack of access roads to facilitate their mobility to go from their home and workplaces.

Sugay announced that Habitat for Humanity Philippines will be holding the Manila leg of the 7th Asia-Pacific Housing forum from July 29 to 31 at the New World Hotel in Makati City. The Housing Forum is a biennial event that puts together 5,000 stakeholders from over 52 countries to seek the best practices and solutions to “poverty housing” and promote affordable housing as a driver of economic growth.

Villar reassured Sugay that the Duterte administration is fully supportive of such private sector-led initiatives to address “housing poverty” in our country. From Habitat estimates, Sugay said, the housing gap in the Philippines stood at four million Filipinos without decent shelter.

Villar noted the DPWH have so far completed more than 9,000 kilometers of road; 2,000 bridges, and 4,000 flood control projects and thousands of kilometers more of other infrastructure projects across the country.

Although the DPWH has the lion’s share of the 75 flagship projects, Villar confidently predicts they would be able to finish them within the term of President Duterte. According to the DPWH Secretary, his agency alone handles some 20,000 individual projects yearly. Of this total, Villar noted, almost 80 percent of them are on track with their set timetable and would meet their respective deadlines.

“I would say we’re halfway towards our goal,” DPWH Sec. Villar said.

Villar admitted though they may still leave some “big-ticket” projects incomplete before the term of the former Davao City Mayor ends in June 2022. It is not by choice, he explained, but because some of these “big ticket” projects have multi-year timetable of completion that extends beyond President Duterte’s term of office.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) earlier said implementing agencies have already identified 47 out of the 75 flagship programs that will be finished beyond 2022. The bulk of which, Villar pointed out, are all funded by the national government in its annual budget and the rest come from official development assistance (ODAs) and loans from various countries and foreign lending institutions.

Villar told us his agency’s budget of P454 billion, excluding the veto cuts, have already been obligated and disbursed for this year alone. “This is not overspending but we’re ahead of disbursement that made these projects moved for completion on time,” he pointed out.

For next year, Villar disclosed, the DPWH needs a P500-billion budget as submitted to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). The Palace earlier announced the proposed 2020 budget of the national government would be submitted to the 18th Congress two weeks after the President’s SONA. The DBM placed the total budget at P4.7 trillion for proposed General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2020.

“If you compute it, every year we are looking at P8 trillion in spending before the end of the President’s term,” Villar estimated. In fact, he noted, infrastructure spending has reached 5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) this year. The agency aims to maximize spending to 7 percent of the GDP by the end of the Duterte administration.

Following the legislative process, the 2020 GAA bill would be initially transmitted to the House of Representatives for their scrutiny and approval before it goes to the Senate for their own review and concurrence. 

Once the DPWH budget is taken up for deliberations in both chambers, it goes without saying Villar can count upon the support of his mother-sister team at the 18th Congress, namely, Senator Cynthia Villar and Las Piñas City Congresswoman Camille Villar, respectively.

The DPWH Secretary is confidently sure there would be no problems in next year’s budget to finish on time the Build, Build, Build. Pardon the pun but the DPWH Secretary is obviously on the mark.