THE PHILIPPINE government should focus more on developing local industries and the agriculture sector than securing official development assistance (ODA) deals from other countries for big-ticket projects, a local think tank said on Wednesday.
“We have a more basic concern than the government’s economic strategy [that] overemphasizes the development impact of infrastructure projects — as if building these will somehow decisively push the agricultural and industrial development the country so needs,” Ibon Foundation executive director Jose Enrique “Sonny” A. Africa said in a Viber message.
Recently, several senators said the government must explore more infrastructure and railway assistance deals with other countries after the Department of Finance (DoF) retracted its ODA deal request with China.
Leonardo A. Lanzona, who teaches Economics at the Ateneo de Manila University, said the government could also look to more public-private partnerships (PPP) to boost infrastructure development.
“The main bulk of the funds then was coming from PPPs which turned out to be better managed than the ODAs, which ultimately failed because of the government’s poor absorptive capacity,” he said in a Facebook Messenger chat, citing PPPs during the administration of the late president Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino, III.
On Oct. 25, Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno told China Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian that the Philippines is “no longer inclined to pursue” China’s financial assistance for the Mindanao Railway Project Phase 1, an P83-billion project.
Senator Mary Grace S. Poe-Llamanzares said the Philippines should seek out fund assistance deals with countries other than China to fund state infrastructure projects.
Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian pointed out that ODA deals with China appear to be more expensive to pursue, given the high interest rates.
“We hope that the retraction of request for assistance from China is because the terms they were offering are genuinely not in our interest and not just as part of a systematic realignment away from China upon the prodding of the US in line with its geopolitical agenda versus China,” Mr. Africa said.
He said the government must weigh all options before committing to further ODAs for infrastructure projects.
Last Sept. 27, the Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the proposed PPP Code, seeking to harmonize the rules on PPP projects to expand private sector participation in infrastructure programs. President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has yet to sign it into law.
As of Sept. 1, there were 104 PPP projects in the pipeline at an estimated cost of P2.521 trillion. Some 180 projects are being implemented worth P2.639 trillion, according to the finance department. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
