Malacañang embarks on P142-billion infra binge

THE administration of President Benigno Aquino 3rd has lined up almost P142-billion worth of infrastructure projects that are scheduled for implementation beginning this month, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad revealed on Monday.

According to him, these projects include building national roads and bridges; airports, seaports and lighthouses; classrooms and other education facilities; potable water supply systems, irrigation and post-harvest facilities; and flood control and slope protection structures.

“By January, we will comprehensively issue allotments for the P141.8-billion infrastructure projects. The implementing departments and agencies will then be able to bid these out. In fact, many of these projects have already been [bidded out],” Abad said.

“The big difference for this year is that [the implementation of these projects] can now take place in January 2012 and not in August, as was the case for the 2011 budget. [This was made] possible [by] the disaggregation of lump sums and the early pre-procurement activities that rolled up in the last quarter of the year,” he added.

Of the 2,187 line-item infrastructure projects given funding in the 2012 budget, 2,025 have been bidded out and will be given the notice to proceed in the first quarter of 2012.

The P141.8-billion allotment is part of the total P182.2-billion budget for government infrastructure under the 2012 national budget. It is 25.6-percent higher than the 2011 allocation and represents 1.6-percent of gross domestic product (GPD)—a .2-percent rise from last year’s 1.4 percent.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) cornered much of the P141.8-billion infrastructure program by implementing P91.57-billion worth of projects. It is set to begin the maintenance and upgrading of roads, as well as address the critical bottlenecks found in these.

The department will also start construction and rehabilitation of national bridges, major flood control projects and payments of right of way, among others.

The agriculture sector, meanwhile, will implement projects worth P27.8 billion, with P24.49 billion to be used by the Department of Agriculture and P3.31 billion to be spent by the Department of Agrarian Reform.

The sector’s infrastructure program will take charge in the construction of farm-to-market roads, post-harvest facilities and provision of potable water supply and irrigation facilities.

The Department of Education will implement programs worth P13.97 billion in the beginning of the year, starting with the construction, repair and rehabilitation of classrooms, including the public school system’s water and sanitation facilities.

The Department of Transportation and Communications will initiate airport improvement activities this month with infrastructure projects worth P7.2 billion. It will upgrade sanitation facilities inside airports, as well as fund the construction and rehabilitation of ports and lighthouses.

To implement one of the government’s priority programs—the provision of sustainable access to safe drinking water—the Department of Interior and Local Government will start implementing its P770-million infrastructure projects for this purpose.

The Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission will begin the P107.96-million rehabilitation and development of Pasig River and its tributary waterways.

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will also implement throughout the region P356.90-million worth of infrastructure projects, among them building roads and bridges and supplying water. –JAIME PILAPIL REPORTER, Manila Times