Recto hails huge budget allocation for public construction but…

Senator Ralph Recto. INQUIRER file photo

While expecting President Rodrigo Duterte to talk more about infrastructure in his second State of the Nation Address (Sona), Senator Ralph Recto said on Tuesday that the huge allocation for public construction in the national budget is “good enough.”

“He briefly touched on our country’s decaying infrastructure, but his benchmarking 7 percent of the GDP for public construction is good enough,” Recto said in a statement.

“I would have expected him to make this his banner call, for the sake of commuters who wake before dawn to catch a ride to work and struggle to be home before midnight,” he added.

Duterte submitted to the Congress the 2018 national budget, the first proposal his administration prepared, right after his Sona on Monday. The Department of Public Works and Highway will get the second biggest share of the budget pie with P1.13 trillion.

Recto noted that the approval of infrastructure projects would always depend on the availability of the funds and its legal basis.

“However, each of the programs will carry a price tag. I will be asking these during the budget hearings because no matter how notable a program is, its realization depends on the availability of funds,” he said.

The senator also urged the administration to “reconstruct Marawi in the same way it was liberated: house-to-house, block by block.”