Duterte team vows to pick up pace of PPP projects

The incoming Duterte administration vows to accelerate the implementation of infrastructure projects to be undertaken through the public-private partnership (PPP) model.

Incoming Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez told reporters in Davao City last Monday that it took the Aquino administration an average of 29 months to implement a PPP project.

“We can cut that down to maybe 18 to 20 months through speedier and more pro-active processing of these projects,” Dominguez said in a press conference on the sidelines of the “Sulong Pilipinas: Hakbang Tungo sa Kaunlaran” consultative workshop participated in by about 400 businessmen.

Incoming Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia earlier told the Inquirer that the Duterte administration would “cut out needless rebiddings, postponements, TROs [temporary restraining orders] and other impediments” to PPP projects.

The Duterte government will also “get a more dynamic and competent head and staff” for the PPP Center, according to Pernia, who is also the incoming Director-General of state planning agency National Economic and Development Authority.

When the Aquino administration launched the initiative in 2010, it committed to roll out about 10 PPP projects a year. However, only 12 projects had been awarded to private sector proponents so far.

“We’ve already said several times that we would not follow the [Aquino] administration’s policies where basically they stopped the PPP projects for two years. That’s why the growth rate really dropped on the second year of the previous administration because they didn’t proceed to make the projects,” Dominguez said.

For Dominguez, upcoming PPP and other infrastructure projects should be put up in areas outside Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Calabarzon, three regions that already account for about 80 percent of projects in the PPP Center’s pipeline.

“If you’re not a pro-active government in pushing the projects outside into the regions, they will all congregate around Mega Manila where two-thirds of our GDP [gross domestic product] is produced,” Dominguez said.

Noting that many underemployed Filipinos come from rural areas, Dominguez said: “It’s very important that jobs are created in the countryside if we’re going to be an inclusive government, so those are the areas we will prioritize.”