NEWS

By Ben O. de Vera

NEDA

The Duterte administration has green-lit about P3.85 trillion worth of infrastructure and other big-ticket projects since mid-2016 up to February this year, most of which will be funded by official development assistance (ODA) loans, the state planning agency National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said.

In a report, the Neda said 91 projects were approved by the Neda Board chaired by President Duterte as of Feb. 26.

Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Neda chief Karl Kendrick Chua confirmed to the Inquirer that among the latest Neda Board approvals included the P27.58-billion additional World Bank financing for the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Kalahi-CIDSS national community-driven development project and the Department of Public Works and Highways’ P15.09-billion seismic risk reduction and resilience project, which would be mainly financed by a forthcoming World Bank loan.

As the Inquirer earlier reported, the Neda Board also recently approved the Department of Transportation’s request to extend by three more years the validity of the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s loans for the P64.92-billion Light Rail Transit Line 1 south and P9.76-billion Line 2 east extension projects.

Of the 91 projects, 12 were locally financed by the national budget, five by public-private partnership (PPP) and the rest by ODA.

The 74 Neda Board-approved projects to be rolled out through ODA financing from multilateral lenders as well as bilateral development partners were worth more than P2.9 trillion.

The Philippines usually borrowed from Japan, China and South Korea as well as the Manila-based Asian Development Bank and the Washington-based World Bank for its priority programs and projects.

Neda’s list showed that 24 projects, which had been previously approved by the administration of President Benigno Aquino III, were tweaked by the Duterte administration due to changes in the financing scheme, project cost or scale, or implementation period.

Chua also clarified that some projects need not undergo Neda Board approval, such as those whose cost fell below the P2.5-billion threshold or had their own franchise, although the list included only a handful of these projects.

Source: Inquirer.Net