A TOTAL of 1,313 region-specific infrastructure projects worth P157.44 billion included in the Three-Year Rolling Infrastructure Plan (TRIP) 2018-2020 will be rolled out in the next three years in five regions that have the highest poverty rates, the government said Tuesday.
“This is in line with the country’s National Spatial Strategy in the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022,” National Economic and Development Authority director-general and Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said.
“We want to set the country’s direction of future growth to one that strongly involves the regions and maximize this connectivity of sustainable urban and rural communities,” he said in a statement.
He said out of the 4,895 projects amounting to P3.6 trillion included in TRIP 2018-2020 revealed during the Dutertenomics Forum, 4,498 are region-specific (P935.55 billion), 158 are inter-regional (P1,848.02 billion), and 239 are nationwide in scale (P824.47 billion).
Among the regions, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the country’s poorest with 48.2 poverty rate among families in the 2015 Philippine Poverty Statistics, will have 955 projects amounting to P50.71 billion.
Caraga (Region XIII), also included in the poorest regions, will have 66 infrastructure projects amounting to P28.81 billion, while Eastern Visayas (Region VIII) will have 147 infrastructure projects amounting to P19.8 billion. Soccsksargen (Region XII) will have 28 projects amounting to P 7.8 billion and Northern Mindanao (Region X) will have 117 projects amounting to P50.32 billion.
“These numbers only include the region-specific projects. These areas are also expected to benefit from the inter-regional and nationwide infrastructure that will form efficient network of engines of economic growth all over the country,” said Pernia.
For the region-specific projects, 2,857 infrastructure projects amounting to P524.48 billion will be built in areas outside the National Capital Region, compared with 293 projects amounting to P180.37 billion to be built in the NCR.