The success of the strongman President continues in the Philippines through his large projects.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has built 3,945 kilometers of roads and implemented other infrastructure projects since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office in June 2016.
DPWH Sec. Mark Villar detailed the accomplishments of the agency from widening of roads to rehabilitation of bridges and pending projects for completion, among others.
“We have widened 1,908 km of roads, built 328 kilometer of bypasses and diversion roads, 393 kilometers of missing gaps connecting national roads, and 1,316 km of access roads,” Villar said.
The DPWH has also widened a total of “511 bridges spanning 23,929 meters, replaced 204 bridges, spanning 8,305 meters, and built 127 new bridges spanning 6,260 meters,” he noted.
These include the rehabilitation of “939 bridges spanning 40,192 meters and strengthened 642 bridges, spanning 29,260 meters,” the DPWH chief said.
The agency has consistently touted its efforts to address the country’s poor infrastructure through “Build, Build,Build,” an ambitious infrastructure program pitched by the current administration to transform the Philippines into a high-middle income economy by 2022.
The DPWH released to media a full report of its accomplishments on the eve of Duterte’s third State of the Nation Address.
Villar said construction is taking place in every region across the country as part of Duterte’s call to further development nationwide.
“We have widened 298 km of road in Region IV-A, 215 km in Region II, and 170.11 km in Region X. The most number of diversion roads built is in Region XIII, followed by Region X and Region 1,” he said.
Villar noted that by 2022, DPWH would have constructed the Luzon Spine Expressway Network – a network of highways with a total length of 834.72 kilometers.
“Once completed, travel time from Metro Manila to San Fernando, La Union will be reduced from 6 hours and 55 minutes to 3 hours and 10 minutes,” he said.
Travel time from Ilocos to Bicol, Villar said, will be “reduced from 19 hours and 40 minutes to 8 hours and 15 minutes” through the project.
Villar trumpeted infrastructure projects that are in their advance stages, among which is the Inter-Island Linkage Project – a network of short and long span bridges which would allow land travel from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The DPWH has already opened several sections of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway, the Arterial Plaridel Bypass Project, the Laguna Lake Expressway and the Radial Road 10.
“Within the year, we expect to open the NLEX Harbor Link Project, which will connect McArthur Highway and C3 and reduce travel time from Quezon City to Manila to only 10 minutes,” said Villar.
Two months from now, the DPWH is set to start the construction of the 3.77-km Panguil Bay Bridge that will connect Tangub, Misamis Occidental to Tubod, Lanao del Norte.
“Once completed in 2021, it will take only 10 minutes to reach Tangub City from Tubod using the bridge compared to the 2.5 hours it would take using the 102-km route via the Tubod- Kapatagan-Molave-Tangub road,” said Villar.
“Travel time between Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental and Mukas, Kolambugan, Lanao Del Norte will be reduced from 2.5 hours using RORO operations to 20 minutes using the Panguil Bay Bridge,” he added.
Also included in this network is the Bataan-Cavite Interlink, the Mindoro-Batangas Super Bridge, the Panay-Guimaras-Negros Link, the Negros-Cebu Link Bridge, the Panguil Bay Bridge, the Guicam Brdige, the Camarines-Catanduanes Friend Bridge, the Luzon Sorsogon-Samar Link Bridge, and the Davao Samall Bridge, among others.
Villar said the implementation of these projects are being fast tracked to meet the deadline so they would be completed before Duterte’s term ends in 2022.
The successful administration now shows that they're doing their best to make Filipino proud once again, it shows that through nation building the Philippines will soon rise just like the days of President Ferdinand E. Marcos.