By Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan
Reporter
STATE infrastructure and other capital disbursements continued their year-on-year surge in March on the back of roadworks as well as repair and construction of government facilities, enabling such spending to exceed the first-quarter target, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) reported on Monday.
In its disbursement assessment report for March, the Budget department said that the government spent P63.4 billion on infrastructure and other capital outlays, 32.4% more than the P47.9 billion recorded in the same month last year.
Although March’s increase was smaller than the 43.9% pace logged in February, the government still spent 25.4% more than the month-ago’s P50.5 billion.
The DBM attributed increased spending in March “mostly to check floats and payments of accounts payable for the implementation of road infrastructure projects of the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways), completed construction of police stations by DILG-PNP (Department of Interior and Local Government-Philippine National Police), and repairs and rehabilitation of school facilities as well as purchase of office fixtures and furniture in various DepEd (Department of Education) schools nationwide.”
The first quarter saw infrastructure and capital outlays surge 33.7% to P157.1 billion from the P117.5 billion recorded in 2017’s comparable three months.
The DBM also noted that it exceeded the P143.4-billion first-quarter target for infrastructure and other capital outlays by 9.6%.
Infrastructure and capital outlays accounted for 20.09% of the P782-billion overall government disbursements in the first quarter that, in turn, were up 27.1% from P615.4 billion in 2017’s first three months.
“The first-quarter numbers suggest that the reforms we are implementing — in terms of budget planning and utilization — are gaining foothold,” Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno was quoted in a statement as saying.
“We will not let up in our efforts to limit underspending and continue with the efficient and accountable management of public resources,” he added.
FOCUS ON RURAL AREAS
Sought for comment, University of Asia and the Pacific economist Bernardo M. Villegas said that the government should now focus on more projects in rural areas.
“If they are in urban areas like Manila and Cebu, [it] should be undertaken mostly via the PPP (public-private partnership) approach… We should use mostly private money for these projects that have a rate of return to private investors. Infrastructure in the countryside are not financially attractive to private investors,” Mr. Villegas said in an e-mail yesterday.
“It is the government that has the responsibility of building them. We should use ODA (official development assistance) money for big projects that are not economically attractive to private investors such as the Mindanao railway system or the railroad from Manila to Bicol which will not make money for many years to come because the volume is not big enough.”
At the same time, Mr. Villegas said “[w]hat can disrupt the ‘Build Build Build’ program is the inability of the government to effectively apply the principle of eminent domain in acquiring right of way.”
“It can also be disrupted if we depend too much on Chinese promises to build our infrastructures.”
The DBM also bared the government’s quarterly fiscal program yesterday, showing national government spending on infrastructure alone will total P699.312 billion for the entire 2018, equivalent to four percent of gross domestic product.
It also noted that total capital expenditures, which includes infrastructure, “are concentrated in the last quarter of the year (31.3% of the total) as payments for completed infrastructure projects become due and demandable.”