House Deputy Speaker and Batangas 6th district Rep. Ralph Recto has praised President Ferdinand '"Bongbong" Marcos Jr. for having an infrastructure project masterplan that's not hinged on rushing the completion of the projects before his term ends.
In a statement Friday, March 10, Recto said Marcos' plan to kick-start 194 high-impact projects worth P9 trillion “is the forward-thinking needed to erase the infrastructure backlog".
“That is grand vision on the infrastructure side that the nation needs,” noted Recto, a former Senate President pro tempore.
As is the nature of grand projects, construction will be “multi-year, multi-administration” which means that “in curating projects, he doesn’t care if the next administration will inaugurate it for as long that it began during his term,” the Batangas solon said.
“This is a departure from the tendency that projects must bear ‘best before election’ completion dates, so when inaugurated, they can be milked for reelection purposes,” he said.
“When the planning cycle follows the election calendar, we are left with piecemeal construction. The tragic result is chop-chop development and progress in small increments. And the President rejects this model by adopting the NEDA (National Economic Development Authority) list,” Recto said.
But the deputy speaker said that when the list of the 194 projects is finally made public, each should carry “a fiscal scorecard” which would contain “sources of financing and tax incentives granted".
“Uutangin ba ‘yan or galing internal revenues through the budget? Ano ba ang debt component ng bawat isa? ODA (Official Development Assistance) o commercial loan? (Will the financing be borrowed or taken from internal revenues through the budget? What is the debt component of each one? Will it be through ODA or commercial loan?)," asked Recto.
"Build, Better, More", or BBM for short, is the official name given by the Marcos administration for its continuation of former president Rodrigo Duterte's "Build, Build, Build" infrastructure modernization program.