In a bid to streamline projects under the “Build, Build, Build” scheme, President Duterte has created a separate Cabinet cluster mandated to enhance the delivery of public infrastructure.
Duterte, through Executive Order (EO) 24, approved the formation of the infrastructure cluster in the Cabinet clusters system. The group is to be headed by the secretary of public works and highways and is to be assisted by the National Economic and Development Authority.
The cluster is instructed to ensure public infrastructure projects are rolled out efficiently and transparently, “focusing on both the management of assets and the shift to service-oriented approaches that enable stakeholders to become coproducers of services”.
It is also responsible for the development and maintenance of quality and reliability of public infrastructure and public investment efficiency. It is assigned to strengthen implementation capacity and budget execution of government agencies involved in infrastructure-building.
Secretaries of various departments comprise the infrastructure cluster, including the secretaries of interior and local government, budget and management, transportation, finance, information and communications technology and trade and industry, among others.
Under Duterte, the government is dead set on completing big-ticket public infrastructure, such as the North Luzon Expressway Harbor Link, Luzon Spine Expressway, Philippine National Railway North and South Rails and the Metro Manila Subway. It intends to achieve this dream by increasing the country’s infrastructure-to-GDP ratio to 7.4percent, which would amount to as much as P8 trillion to P9 trillion by the end of Duterte’s term in 2022. The administration has allocated P3.6trillion for its public infrastructure over the next three years, most of which were allocated for trans-portation projects in Metro Manila and other major cities.