DPWH executive says SONA projects finished by 2009

An official of the Department of Public Works Highways (DPWH) is optimistic that they would be able to finish before the end of 2009 all the major projects committed by President Arroyo in her State of the Nation Address.

DPWH Undersecretary Manuel Bonoan said regional directors and district engineers are complying with the directive issued by Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. to finish the SONA projects by October next year or before Mrs. Arroyo ends her term in 2010.

Bonoan said the DPWH is undertaking several SONA projects, such as the Nautical Highway and projects that address traffic congestion and support the tourism program of the government.

Next year, the DPWH will also implement the second phase of the National Road Improvement and Maintenance Program (NRIMP) to cost $576.02 million.

Funding for the project will come from the DPWH ($333.52 million), the World Bank ($232 million) and the Australian aid agency AusAid ($10.5 million).

The NRIMP 2 is geared toward the implementation of 450 kilometers of national arterial roads and bridges and a comprehensive road maintenance program. It also includes a DPWH institutional reforms component with information and technology.

“The NRIMP project is a big program, particularly a maintenance and asset preservation program and the upgrading and improvement of the major road projects all over the country. I think it is a five- or six-year program which will start next year. We already had a kick-off and recently just wrapped up the meeting with the World Bank support mission team,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bonoan said that they would also want to take advantage of the good weather in the early part of next year and have asked the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to release part of their first quarter budget for 2009 to start work on their projects.

Bonoan said frontloading is a good way to take advantage of the good construction weather during the early part of the year.

Funds, he explained, are usually released during the second half of the fiscal year in time for the rainy season, resulting in delays in the completion of projects.

The agency’s proposed budget for next year is P112. 3 billion, P99.7 billon of which is allocated for infrastructure. The budget would still have to be deliberated on and approved by the congressional bicameral conference.

Next year’s budget is 34.8 percent higher than this year’s P83.3 billion.

The DPWH has spent 70 percent of its P83.3 billion budget this year. – Evelyn Macairan