MANILA, Philippines — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has so far given eight State of the Nation addresses, but has she actually delivered on the promises she made in them?

Going into her ninth and final SONA, the President’s top lieutenants are ostensibly rushing to make sure that the 154 infrastructure projects she had touted in her previous addresses would be completed or at least started before her term expires in June 2010.

Of the number, 38 projects have been completed and 37 more are set to be finished by the end of the year, said presidential chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon, who was tasked to monitor the projects.

“What is good about this is that the funding for all these SONA commitments are complete or are in place,” Esperon told reporters Thursday in a briefing.

“Many of these projects are supposed to be completed in 2010 or even beyond. But the President had given instructions as early as last year to (rush) these projects, many of these projects, so that we can deliver them by December 2009,” he said.

Esperon said the Alabang Viaduct or Toll Road 1 was “99.8 percent” complete with only traffic signs and closed circuit TV cameras left to be installed.

The entire stretch of Toll Road 2, which connects Alabang in Muntinlupa City to Calamba in Laguna, has been paved, with toll plazas expected to be completed in two months, he said.

He said Toll Road 3 linking the South Luzon Tollway to the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) would be “operational” by December. He said the project included a 7.5-kilometer road and six bridges.

He said Toll Road 3 would be completed by March 2010 and would cut travel time from Alabang to Sto. Tomas town in Batangas province from 46 to 26 minutes.

“It will also provide access to the port of Batangas and help promote the development of the economic centers in southern Luzon,” he said.

“More importantly, there will result seamless land travel from the port of Batangas to the Subic or Clark free port zones.”

Another project is the linking of Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1’s Monumento terminal to Metro Rail Transit’s North Edsa station, which is set for completion by the end of the year.

Esperon said Ms Arroyo would “substantially” take up the completed infrastructure projects in her final SONA later this month.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo had said the initial draft of the SONA had been completed.