Photo courtesy of PCOO Global Media Affairs
MANILA — Commitment to modernize public infrastructure in the Philippines prompted the Duterte administration to post the highest gross value in public sector construction since the Estrada administration.
Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno stressed this during the Presidential Communications Operations Office’s (PCOO) “The Presser: Dutertenomics 2.O” at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) Monday.
Diokno said the current government’s “Build, Build, Build” program “is not only a press release but is, in fact, a reality.”
“The spending numbers confirm that “Build, Build, Build” program is firing on all cylinders,” he said.
Diokno explained that in the first 11 months of 2018, investment in infrastructure rose about 50 percent year-on-year to PHP728.1 billion.
“This brings us closer to our goal of spending at least five percent to a high of seven percent of GDP (gross domestic product) for public infrastructure,” he said.
The current government targets to increase infrastructure investment to account for as much as seven percent of domestic output by 2022, in a bid to ensure that strong domestic growth will be sustained beyond the end of its term.
Citing the national income accounts, the Budget and Management chief said the Duterte government registered the highest gross value in construction in public sector, with an average of 17 percent in 2017 and 2018.
He said public construction grew by 12.7 percent in 2017 and to 21.2 percent in 2018, which, he pointed out, is “in sharp contrast with the decline in public construction during the first two years of previous administrations.”
Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Diokno said public construction posted a negative growth of 16.8 percent in the first full year of former President Joseph Estrada’s administration but recovered the following year and went up by 10.8 percent.
Public construction in the first full year of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration fell by 16.1 percent and by 1.3 percent in the second year.
In the first full year of former President Benigno Aquino III’s term, public construction fell 38.8 percent but went up by 17.3 percent the following year.
During the current administration, gross value in public construction grew by 12.7 percent in 2017 and rose further to 21.2 percent last year.
“In short where others failed Duterte hit the ground running,” he said.
These growth figures for public construction helped ensure the sustained 6 percent level GDP expansion to date, with the 2017 level at 6.7 percent and the 2018 at 6.2 percent.
Economic managers have set a GDP target of between seven to eight percent for 2019-22.
Domestic growth slowed last year on account of mostly external factors as well as elevated domestic inflation rate but Diokno stressed that the economy’s output “made the Philippines one of the fastest-growing economies in the world's fastest growing region, which is the ASEAN region.” (PNA)
