Sustained growth,
Construction and housing sectors grew by 10% last year and the President expects these to expand further in 1995 because of increased government and private sector infrastructure projects. Mr. Ramos told the press conference he wants the planned skyways in Infanta, the road networks of Circumferential Road-5 as well as Subic and Clark to get off the ground this year.
This year, Mr. Ramos said Government will concentrate on its social reform agenda which includes: improving access to education and technical training; housing programs; the promotion of workers’ benefits; improving the primary health care system; and, increasing benefits for the veterans and the elderly.
Meanwhile, Senator Ernesto Maceda cited the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) as the top “center of performance” among government agencies.
“For the first time since the Aquino Government,” he said the BIR did not revise its original revenue target downward and actually met it. He said the BIR “oversubscribed” its target despite the suspension of implementation of the expanded value-added tax law which would have generated some P18 billion in additional revenues.
He added BIR Commissioner Liwayway Vinzons Chato has never been the subject of any dossier, white paper or investigation on corruption among the reports fed him.
After the BIR, Mr. Maceda’s best-performing agencies include: the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the Civil Service Commission (CSC), the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), Duty-Free Shops ( DFS), the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (PCHR) and the National Power Corp. (Napocor). He explained his “personal” choices: • for the first time, the NEDA made its growth target;
• the DSWD was at the center of many calamities from Central Luzon to Mindoro and “coped without too much complaints to misappropriations;”
• DTI actively promoted exports, the cornerstone of the country’s growth strategy;
• GSIS registered increases in income and in benefits;
• CSC did “a comparatively good job” in weeding out incompetents in public service through an incentive program and in upgrading the efficiency of officials;
• DoLE acted decisively on the issue of migrant workers from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia;
• DFS has registered “higher income” this year despite the competition posed by Clark and Subic; and
• PCHR was the recipient of an award from the United Nations.
In Mr. Maceda’s list of “flagship centers of corruption,” the Department of Transportation and Communication (DoTC) was number one for allocating service areas to select telecommunications companies.
Other poor performing offices were: the Bureau of Customs ( BoC), the Philippine National Police ( PNP), the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports (DECS), the Department of Justice (DoJ), the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System ( MWSS), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Philippine National Oil Co. ( PNOC) and the Department of Health ( DoH) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Based on its own assessment, the DPWH completed last year 78.86% of its construction- related activities under the department’s basic highways program, the DECS’s schoolbuildings program and projects covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
DPWH Assistant Secretary for Planning Manuel Bonoan said the accomplishment rate received mixed ratings from the private sector.
Philippine Constructors Association ( PCA) Executive Director Manolito P. Madrasto told BusinessWorld the DPWH grade is “good enough,” considering all the “constraints they’ve had to contend with up to now.”
One problem concerns “funding not being available on time. Funds come in trickles” and this can impact on timely completion of projects, he said.
“Laws on land also delay projects beyond control,” he said. Add to these, politics or political pressure, “which you cannot take away from some infrastructure projects. Well, it happens all over the world.”
An officer of a construction firm which has had a long working relationship with DPWH said the accomplishment figure was “rather low. Overall, they should have accomplished more than that.” The source said the rather low figure could be attributed to the usual bureaucratic red tape and government procurement systems and procedures.
In its year- end report to President Ramos, DPWH cited some issues and problems that have affected implementation of infrastructure projects such as the late identification of projects, particularly DECS and CARP projects; late releases of funds; realignment of projects; right- of-way problems; bad weather condition; lack of equipment; and scarcity of construction materials.
Although it placed special emphasis on the implementation of flagship projects to spur economic activities in strategic growth zones, DPWH also “addressed the need to redirect development by advocating a more broadbased regional and rural infrastructure development,” the report said.
DPWH implemented 16,545 infrastructure projects valued at P19.864 billion under the DPWH Basic Infrastructure Program, Additional Priority Program, Countrywide Development Fund, DECS schoolbuilding program, and CARP.
The accomplishments include the following:
• Improvement/construction of 1,596 kilometers of roads; 9,184 lineal meters of bridges; and 197 other roadway facilities costing P9.526 billion;
• Eight portworks projects costing P50 million;
• 332 flood control and drainage projects costing P2.181 billion;
• 8,245 level I water supply projects costing P627 million;
• 42 small urban infrastructure projects costing P889 million;
• 6,661 other infrastructure facilities ( additional priority projects) costing P3.947 billion;
• 6,691 school building projects costing P2.347 billion;
• 3,525 projects under the Countrywide Development Fund costing P845 million; and
• 242 farm- to- market road projects costing P252 million under CARP.