After dropping the bid to grant President Duterte emergency powers to address the traffic crisis, the House of Representatives is contemplating on giving the Chief Executive special powers to speed up the implementation of its ambitious “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program.
Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, has filed House Bill 5456 that will grant Duterte special powers in adopting a national policy “in speeding up the implementation” of the BBB program on or before 2022.
In a press conference, Salceda, also senior vice chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, admitted that Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon was correct in airing serious apprehensions about the snail-paced BBB implementation.
“The administration should welcome this as a warning that any further delays will definitely cause some public disappointment, expectations for this project were aggressively driven,” said Salceda.
With approximately P4.3 trillion expected to be poured into 100 priority infrastructures under the BBB program, the Duterte administration vowed to implement it in 2017.
To ensure funding, Congress, prodded by the Department of Finance, swiftly passed unpopular tax measures.
“It is the largest and broadest infrastructure spending program ever undertaken by any Philippine government in the last 100 years,” said Salceda.
However, Drilon criticized government’s poor accomplishment record with just two-and-half years left to implement the BBB program.
“This program has to be supported with an emergency power to fast track the implementation as this would provide an inclusive growth, which means reducing poverty from 21.6 percent of population in 2015 to 14 percent by 2022,” Salceda explained.
He stressed that the swift implementation of the BBB will “complement meaningfully to the economic and social legislations that were already passed by Congress to accelerate country’s growth rate.”
HB 5456 identified 75 original BBB projects that will be covered by the special powers of the Chief Executive.
The bill proposes to allow government speed up the BBB by easing “procurement rigidities” under the Government Procurement Law.
While special modes of procurement will be authorized by the measure, Salceda stated that the public bidding process will still be observed.
Road right-of-way issues that have hampered the implementation of vital road infrastructure will also be addressed by giving Duterte the right to give the go signal for a project even before owners of affected properties and government could agree on pricing.
According to Salceda, HB 5456 also proposes to install safeguards with the implementation of an executive order carrying out provisions of the Freedom of Information proposal and the creation of a congressional oversight Committee.
Salceda also proposed a flagship manager to oversee the swift implementation of the BBB. (Ben Rosario)
