The government intends to lower the cost of transportation by the time President Aquino bows out from office in 2016 through reforms in the transport sector, including the construction of the much-needed infrastructure to ease the traffic congestion in key arteries to facilitate faster exchange of goods and services.
Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya said his agency aims to reduce transport cost by 8.5 percent by 2016, through the development of more intermodal facilities such as seaports, aviation hubs and railway systems.
“We could achieve this goal through our infrastructure thrust which includes the reforms in shipping, aviation and ports among others,” he said. “The Dream Plan will also address the congestion in Metro Manila [and] we are also building more intermodal terminals and mass-rail systems.”
Currently, the government is rolling out a transportation dream plan that costs about P4.76 trillion through 2030. The road map was laid out by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which said around P539 billion must be invested in traffic infrastructure beginning 2014 up to 2016, and another P1.52 trillion must be invested from 2017 to 2022. The biggest investment requirement was seen in the period 2023 to 2030, costing at least P2.69 trillion.
These investments, the agency said, will translate to a reduction in transport fares and reduced travel time, resulting in gains and savings.
If the measures laid out by the Japanese consultants were not realized, the country is set to lose some P6 billion a day in productivity losses. Currently, the Philippines is said to be losing some P2.4 billion daily due to the gridlock around the country’s major arteries.
Some of the proposals in the road map are currently being undertaken by the private sector and the state under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Program.
The government’s key infrastructure thrust has roughly 60 projects included in the pipeline which costs more or less P800 billion in investments. Roughly half of the deals are under the transportation agency.
This year, the transportation agency identified more than 30 projects that it tagged as priorities, bulk of which are pending before the National Economic and Development Authority Board and are currently being studied for feasibility.
The government has awarded eight PPP contracts since the flagship infrastructure program was launched in late-2010, of which only three came from the Department of Transportation and Communications, namely:
the P1.72-billion Automatic Fare Collection System contract awarded to the AF Consortium of Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. in January;
the P17.5-billion Mactan Cebu International Airport New Passenger Terminal project bagged in April by Megawide Construction Corp. and GMR Infrastructures Ltd.; and
the P 64.9-billion Light Rail Transit Line 1 Cavite Extension deal awarded to Light Rail Manila Consortium of Metro Pacific and Ayala.