Gov’t allots P6.5B for road projects

Provinces that are ready to build and repair more roads can access a P6.5-billion, scaled-up infrastructure program to be implemented next year, Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said on Thursday.

Abad said in a briefing that the proposed Konkreto at Ayos na Lansangan at Daan Tungo sa Pangkalahatang Kaunlaran or Kalsada was an offshoot of an earlier national program that covered 10 pilot provinces.

The program that started in 2007, funded by the Australian government under the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s Philippine Provincial Road Management Facility, is set to end this year, hence the idea to expand it in 2016, Abad explained.

“We didn’t want the program to just end there, so we adopted and scaled it up,” Abad said.

But contrary to allegations that this project may be a “political gimmick” of the Aquino administration ahead of next year’s national elections, Abad said this was part of initiatives aimed at making local governments more self-reliant.

“This is not patronage-oriented. We are building capacities so LGUs [local government units] can take on national government functions that should legitimately be done by LGUs,” he said.

The proposed P6.5-billion performance-based download will be available to all 73 provinces, provided that they need more roads and are ready to implement road projects next year, Budget Assistant Secretary Maxine Tanya M. Hamada said.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) noted in a statement that to benefit from Kalsada are provinces that “meet good governance standards, social development benchmarks, and established monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.” The respective performances of provincial governments in implementing road projects will be monitored between this month and November, Abad said.

Hence, provinces deemed not ready to build or rehabilitate more roads may not qualify for Kalsada, but Abad said low-performing provincial governments may instead first opt to avail themselves of technical assistance to be provided by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as well as the World Bank.

The DBM has allotted P74.5 million for capacity development.

Kalsada targets to implement rehabilitation works of an average of 61.5 kilometers per province alongside improvement works of 24.6 kilometers and upgrading works of 12.3 kilometers per province.

According to the DBM, Kalsada will increase provinces’ ability to bring road networks to sustainably maintainable conditions through rehabilitation or renovation of strategic provincial road networks.