Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar is confident that President Duterte will highlight the administration’s major infrastructure achievements over the past five years during the latter's final State of the Nation Address (SONA)
"Pupunta po ako mamaya. Excited din ako at gusto kong marinig ang SONA ni President Duterte (I will attend later. I'm also excited and I also want to hear President Duterte's SONA)," Villar said during a televised press briefing a few hours before the scheduled speech on Monday afternoon, July 26.
"Wala naman akong idea kung ano yung magiging exact flow ng kanyang speech but definitely for sure, babanggitin niya lahat ng accomplishments (I don't have an idea of the exact flow of his speech but definitely for sure, he will mention all the accomplishments)," he added.
Villar, who is the chief implementor of the government's flagship "Build, Build, Build" infrastructure program, said they were able to triple the delivered infrastructure projects nationwide in the last five years in terms of spending.
"Kung ico-compute natin yung spending, yung accomplishment natin in terms of sa peso value, halos times three yung natapos na projects sa ilalim ng administrasyong Duterte (If we are to compute the spending, our accomplishments in terms of peso value, the projects delivered under the Duterte administration have tripled)," the secretary said.
"Ito na ang pinakamarami sa kasaysayan ng ating bansa (This is the most numbers of delivered projects in the history of our country)," he added.
A total of 26,494 kilometers of roads were constructed, maintained, and improved while 5,555 bridges were built and rehabilitated in the country since 2016, when the Duterte administration began.
Villar emphasized that another achievement of Build, Build, Build is the number of jobs it generated. From 2016 to 2020, it was able to provide over 6.5 million jobs to Filipinos.
"Kaya ito po ay isang programa na napakalawak at accomplishment hindi lang ng Duterte administration pero accomplishment ng 6.5 million Filipinos na nagtatrabaho para sa ating kaunlaran. Kaya kung titingnan n'yo po, makikita naman, mararamdaman ang effects ng Build, Build, Build. Malawak yung effects ng Build, Build Build, short term at long term effects (This is indeed a broad program and an accomplishment not only by the Duterte administration but also by the 6.5 million Filipinos working for the development of the country. So when you look at it, we can feel the effects of Build, Build, Build, both short and long term effects)," Villar said.