More than 1.48 million jobs have been generated under the government's Build, Build, Build (BBB) infrastructure program during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said Friday, Sept. 24.
Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar disclosed that the 1.48 million jobs were provided to Filipinos around the country from March 2020 to August 2021 under the BBB program.
“As announced before, BBB will be one of our key drivers towards economic recovery. We are glad that indeed infrastructure projects across the country were able to provide the much-needed livelihood opportunities, more so during this pandemic period,” Villar said.
From the 1.48 million, a total of 24,560 jobs were generated by projects under the DPWH Unified Project Management Office (UPMO); 70,661 through the DPWH National Capital Region; 72,168 in the DPWH Cordillera Administrative Region; 65,716 in the DPWH Region 1; 65,529 in the DPWH Region 2; 125,330 in DPWH Region 3; 74,252 in DPWH Region 4-A, 181,501 in DPWH Region 4-B; and 213,089 in DPWH Region 5.
In the three regions in Visayas, DPWH projects were able to create a total of 250,102 jobs while a total of 345,887 jobs were generated in Mindanao.
Villar said they are anticipating the number of jobs to further balloon by the end of 2021 "as there are still a lot of vital projects scheduled for implementation."