IT is now three years and six months since the start of the Duterte administration. It immediately launched new programs led by a drive on illegal drugs along with regional economic development programs, with emphasis on the President’s home region of Mindanao, along with his all-out push for a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.
The drugs problem remains a major national concern and even now the President’s appointment of Vice President Leni Robredo as co-chairman of the task force against drugs, the Inter-Agency Committee on Illegal Drugs (ICAD), is at the center of continuing controversy, with Robredo being warned against revealing “state secrets” that may jeopardize national security.
One program, however, on which we have no reservations is the infrastructure construction program that is now going on all over the country. Signs of the work in progress are everywhere in Metro Manila – on Osmeña Highway in Makati, to Araneta Ave., and Balintawak, in Quezon City, connecting the South and the North Expressways. Another elevated expressway is rising from NLEX along the old railroad tracks to C-3 and Radial Road 10 to the piers.
And these are only the most visible projects to Metro Manilans. All around the country, Malacañang said this weekend, 35 projects are now rolling and 32 more will begin in six to eight months. Then there are 21 projects in advanced stages of approval and another 12 in advanced stages of feasibility studies. By the end of the Duterte administration in 2022, 38 of these are expected to be completed; work on 22 others will have to continue in the next administration. These major projects are listed as part of “Build, Build, Build” but thousand of smaller projects are planned or are already underway in all parts of the country.
Some opposition leaders have been critical of a number of administration programs – with reason on some cases. But the recent claim of one opposition senator that “Build, Build, Build” has been a “dismal failure” must be rejected, if only because we see the massive posts of the expressways rising all around us in Metro Manila.
The administration has less than three years to go and so much more needs to be done. The Bangsamoro must be assisted to become a functioning autonomous regions if only to correct – in the words of President Duterte – a “historic injustice” to the Moro people.
He may fare less successfully in rooting out corruption in government, so deeply embedded the systems of graft have become in some agencies. The drug problem will continue to hound succeeding governments – so many nations around the world – Iran, Mexico, Bolivia, Russia, and even the United States – continue to have serious drug problems.
But “Build, Build, Build” is one great distinction for which the Duterte administration will be known. It will be a major contribution to the economic development of the country in the coming years.