‘Build, Build, Build’ projects ‘not well thought out,’ says Angara

Several infrastructure projects included in the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program, such as the proposed kilometers-long bridge that would connect Visayas and Mindanao islands, were “not well thought out,” Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara admitted on Sunday.

“The original 75 flagship projects may not be well thought out and vetted properly that’s why we saw that 28 of these had been taken off the list and were replaced with more doable and fundable projects,” Angara said.

‘Overly expensive’

Angara, who has been defending the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020 at the Senate plenary deliberations, said the 28 projects were shelved for being “ambitious” and “overly expensive.”

He said under the program’s revised list were construction projects deemed “more realistic,” which the government was expecting to complete before President Duterte’s six-year term ends in 2022.

“Many of these projects will not be completed in 2022, but what is important is that work on these will start already and will be continued by the next administration,” he said.

But Angara, the Senate finance committee chair, rejected Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon’s observation that Mr. Duterte’s much-vaunted program, which was supposed to spur the “golden age in the country’s infrastructure,” was a “dismal failure.”