An infrastructure milestone

NO DOUBT, many were all ears when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. pledged to adopt his predecessor’s vision for a “golden age of infrastructure” to enhance mobility and connectivity in this country.

work that nurses have to undergo,

If “flunkers” are hired in government hospitals, it will set a very bad precedent.

Soon, my gulay, even “flunkers” in bar exams, engineering, and medical exams will soon be hired. Santa Banana, the Philippines will be known as a country of “flunkers.”

The need for a DDR

The President may have gone to Albay to look into the evacuation of some 20,000 residents living within the six-kilometer danger zone of the Mayon Volcano, but he could not see that evacuees had occupied school buildings where the amenities are sub-standard. My gulay, now the evacuees are complaining of lack of potable water and clamoring for food and other relief goods, which, more often than not, are not enough and often come in late.

Yes, Albay has its Provincial Risk Reduction and Management Council (PRRMC), an ad hoc body which acts only when there’s a calamity or disaster, but obviously that’s inadequate.

And once again, for the nth time, I call on the Office of the President on the urgent and imperative need for the creation of a Department of Disaster Resilience which can focus and strategize needs of people affected by calamities and disasters which happen often in the Philippines, a country prone to calamities and disasters, like those evacuees affected by the Mayon Volcano’s unrest.

My gulay, to think that a volcanic unrest is just one disaster and calamity.

The country is often victim of super-typhoons, floods, landslides, typhoon surges, earthquakes and other calamities destroying infrastructure, livelihood, not to mention the loss of lives.

Despite all these calamities people have to rely on the NDRRMC, an ad hoc body under the Office of Civil Defense.

Speaking during the 125th anniversary celebration of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Port Area, Manila the other day, the President was up-and-coming when he acknowledged the importance of infrastructure development in nation-building.

He underlined that putting a premium on the infrastructure sector was the “basic element” in bringing progress to this country of 114 million people. And he told his DPWH audience: “That is why you have a long and celebrated history, stretching back many centuries. The department’s accomplishments have not only changed our landscapes but defined our society as a whole.”

It was reassuring for the president to say that the “golden age of infrastructure will not end,” adding “let us continue the golden age of infrastructure because it would benefit our countrymen.”

Then President Rodrigo Duterte’s ambitious “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program ushered the country into the so-called “golden age of infrastructure.”

From July 2016 to May 2021, DPWH was able to deliver the construction, maintenance, improvement, and widening of a total of 29,264 kilometers of roads composed of 13,294.54 kilometers of projects in Luzon, 5,427.06 kilometers in Visayas, and 10,542.88 kilometers in Mindanao.

The DPWH said 5,950 bridges were completed included in the works those have widened (1,366); retrofitted (1,805); rehabilitated (1,389); replaced (297) and some 738 local bridges have been constructed. Under the Marcos administration, the infrastructure development plan has been rebranded as “Build, Better, More” program. The President, as chairperson of the National

Economic and Development Authority Board, approved in March this year 194 high-impact infrastructure flagship projects worth P9 trillion.

He attributed the success in implementing flagship infrastructure projects to the DPWH, citing the department’s “very long list of accomplishments” since its inception 125 years ago. “From the majestic government buildings, the large projects such as dams and irrigation systems, bridges, highways connecting our many islands, the Public Works [department] has been at the front and center of the planning and construction of it all,” he said.

“You should be proud for each of you has contributed not only to the building of these structures but to the building of the nation as a whole,” he added.

Mr. Marcos said the DPWH personnel’s hard work has resulted in the establishment of several structures that “produce opportunities, facilitate commerce, increase mobility and protect the lives of our people.”

He urged the department to take advantage of the new technologies and techniques to ensure the timely completion of critical infrastructure projects.

In celebrating the milestone, the President was resonant in his hope that everyone in the Department of Public Works will remain steadfast in its mandate as well as stay committed to fulfilling his administration’s 8-point socioeconomic agenda “by committing to construct and finish critical infrastructure projects on time, on schedule and under budget.”

The DPWH, established on June 23, 1898, is mandated to undertake the planning of infrastructure and the design, construction, and maintenance of national roads and bridges, and major flood control systems.