Virus spread, movement limitations cut infra spending in October

The prolonged quarantine restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic slashed spending on public infrastructure by almost a third to P57.1 billion in October.

Data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released on Thursday showed October expenditures on infrastructure and other capital outlays dropped 30.6 percent from P82.2 billion a year ago.

The national government’s infrastructure disbursements in October were nonetheless slightly bigger than September’s P56.9 billion.

“Although an increase was recorded in the disbursements for capital outlay projects of the Department of National Defense under the revised Armed Forces of the Philippines modernization program, it only tempered the decline in infrastructure spending of the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Department of Transportation,” the DBM said in a report.

Also, “the implementation of some government infrastructure projects has been hindered by various delays, especially during the imposition of community quarantine measures in the earlier part of the year to contain the further spread of the COVID-19 virus,” the DBM added.

From January to October, the government spent a cumulative P508.5 billion on infrastructure, down 18.4 percent from P622.9 billion during the same period last year.

The DBM also blamed the discontinuance of some projects as budget items had been realigned into COVID-19 response at the height of the longest and most stringent lockdown in the region.

Economic managers programmed to ramp up infrastructure spending to P1.17 trillion next year and P1.15 trillion in 2022. —BEN O. DE VERA INQ