THE Duterte administration has lined up an ambitious infrastructure program that will spend P8.4 trillion over the next six years, and include a subway system for Metro Manila that will be completed by 2024.
“Our program of infrastructure build up will entail trillions in economic investments,” Ernesto Pernia, secretary-general of the National Economic and Development Authority [Neda] said in a forum Tuesday.
Pernia described the P8.4-trillion infrastructure program the country’s most ambitious in history.
For this year, the Duterte administration’s infrastructure spending will amount to P847 billion or 5.3 percent to gross domestic product.
This is higher than the 2.6-percent average infrastructure spending for the last six administrations, Pernia said.
For 2018, infrastructure spending will rise to P1.13 trillion.
Pernia said spending 7.4 percent of GDP on infrastructure will increase economic output by five percent and would generate 1.7 million more jobs.
The government targets a GDP growth of between 6.5 percent and 7.5 percent this year, and seven percent to eight percent from 2018 to 2022.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said the government’s infrastructure investment would be funded by official development assistance and tax collections.
Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade said the agency is set to sign by November a deal with the government of Japan to build a P227-billion Mega Manila Subway Project.
“This is one of the very ambitious projects of the Duterte administration. We call it the Mega Manila Subway project, and this [will be] the first subway in the Philippines,” he said.
Tugade said the project is expected to start by 2019 and will be completed by fourth quarter of 2024.
The Transport department will also oversee the building of the PNR North Rail Project, PNR South Rail Project and the Mindanao Railway.
Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said his agency will be spending P450 billion on infrastructure this year.
“We intend to increase our spending every year until we reach the $160 billion over the next six years,” Villar said.
