President Rodrigo Duterte is angry with Senate Minority leader Franklin Drilon for calling his signature Build, Build, Build (BBB) program a “dismal failure.” It would have been sufficiently unkind of Drilon if he had simply said that the BBB program was a failure; but he had to be very unkind and called it a dismal failure. Not surprisingly, the Chief Executive very upset.
How could the Senate majority leader stop himself from pronouncing the BBB program a “dismal failure” when (1) President Duterte and his economic advisers had declared during the 2016 campaign; that upon Mr. Duterte’s election the Philippines would enter upon a Golden Age of Infrastructure, with no less than 75 “flagship projects” to be undertaken in hit-the-ground-running fashion, and (2) a recent report of the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) to the Senate, only nine (9) of the flagship projects have been completed or are nearing completion.
Flagship projects are by definition big projects, and big projects are more complicated and require more experience than ordinary projects. Thus, there is little likelihood that many more of the 75 touted projects will be completed or near-completed during the remaining three and a years of President Duterte’s term. Indeed, post-Senate-hearing statements that they have made the economic managers—especially the Secretary of Finance and the Secretary of Socio-Economic Planning (who is concurrently NEDA Director-General)—had said that, the list of flagship projects be reviewed, with a view to its being shortened. The post-review list may consist of around 40 projects, they have said.
Even 40 projects—almost 50 percent of the original number of flagship projects—in an unrealistic number. If only nine projects could be completed or nearly completed in two and half years, how can 40 projects possibly be completed in almost the same span of time? The answer is that they cannot, given the physical and other realities of the situation. The Duterte administration should have hit the ground running when it came into with many projects ready for implementation; but it didn’t.
To be sure, the revelation in the Senate that the Golden Age of Infrastructure has not come and that only around 11 percent of the hyped projects have been completed or near-completed was a source of tremendous embarrassment for the Duterte administration. It showed that the set of people currently running the country are incapable of monumental undertakings.
Having been embarrassed once, the Duterte administration surely does not want the embarrassment to take place again. Unfortunately, barring any dramatic improvement in the administrative and managerial capabilities of the government, another embarrassment for the Duterte administration is almost certainly what will come to pass when the BBB program is subjected to Congressional review late next year. There is every likelihood that the economic managers will report higher a project completion rate not too much than that for that for 2016-to-date.
What should the Duterte administration do under the circumstances?
It should do two things. The first, which has already been discussed, is to conduct a searching review of the BBB program’s 75 flagship projects and discard those that are clearly beyond the realm of doability; for starters, the island-linking bridge projects should quickly get the axe. After the review, the BBB program should be left with no more than 20-25 projects; to repeat, a post-review BBB menu of 40 projects is unrealistic. There is just no way that the present government can get 40 projects completed—or even started—during the next 12 months.
The second thing that the Duterte administration should do is to focus on the 20-25 projects that appear doable and provide them with everything that they need by way of financial, technical and managerial support. It should stop being obsessed on the number 75; it should, instead, start being fixated on the numbers 20-25. Twenty to 25 projects completed, out of 75 announced with much fanfare, would be a feat.
Senator Drilon was absolutely right when he called the BBB program a dismal failure. The Duterte administration should work hard to deprive the Senate minority leader of any basis for repeating his damaging assessment in the coming year.