Belmonte issued the statement Friday following Singson’s admission that P24.16 billion or 45.9 percent of all his department’s projects for this year started only in July, and mainly as a result of “longer preparation of program works.”
Singson had told Congress that the rest of the public works projects were still to be bid out, and that of the three pubic-private partnership programs that his department was pursuing only one —the Daang Hari-South Luzon Expressway connection—would be bid out, and only in December. The two other flagship projects had yet to reach the bidding stage.“As of July 2011, out of the total 2,124 projects being implemented with a total cost of P52.566 billion, 1,631 projects were advertised with a total cost of P36.472 billion,” Singson had said in his report to Congress.
“Of the projects advertised, 1,516 costing P31.120 billion were bid out, of which 1,255 with a total cost P24.16 billion were awarded or already started.”
The House on third reading approved Public Works’ P109.63-billion for 2012.
In defending his budget, Singson said his department had listed seven priorities, and among those were the flood-control projects of “highest impact and economic returns.” The public-private partnership projects were priority number 3.
Singson said that of the 15,872 kilometers of national arterial roads, 91 percent were paved, but 18 percent of the paved sections needed to be rehabilitated.
He said a bridge program to support agriculture was delayed by the Agrarian Reform Department’s slow identification of sites, adding that of the 418 bridges planned, only 26 sites were identified.
by Christine F. Herrera
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