MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said his administration will see some projects of former President Rodrigo Duterte come into fruition after the government unveiled its flagship infrastructure program earlier this month.
Out of the 194 infrastructure projects worth P9 trillion, at least 123 are new initiatives and 71 were from the Duterte administration.
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“This is part of our Build Better More program that aims to improve living conditions of the different sectors in our country through modernization and by improving the quality of our public infrastructure,” Marcos Jr. said in his Youtube video published over the weekend.
These projects include transportation infrastructure, digital connectivity, flood control, health-related initiatives and power and energy, among others.
The chief executive said he hopes these public infrastructure projects will help solve traffic congestion in the metro and improve connectivity in the provinces, as well as alleviate the country’s food security issues and mitigate the climate change impacts.
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Earlier this month, the National Economic and Development Authority said at least 45 of the administration’s flagship infrastructure projects will get funding from the private sector, just as what the previous administrations did.
There are already 95 ongoing projects that have been approved for implementation, while eight have gotten a go-signal from the government. Meanwhile, 47 are undergoing feasibility studies and 44 are in “pre-project preparations.”
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Marcos Jr. added he hopes the new projects will help boost employment in the country.
Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that there were 2.37 million Filipinos who were jobless in January, up from the 2.22 million logged in December last year as seasonal jobs went dry. – with reports from Ramon Royandoyan