JV Ejercito: PH infra investments lagging behind due to “slow” approval of projects
August 24, 2023
The Philippines is experiencing worsening
backlogs in infrastructure investments due to the sluggish approval of project
and program proposals in the past years, Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito
said on Thursday.
"Probably, one of the reasons why our
country is lagging behind in terms of investments in infrastructure, especially
against our ASEAN neighbors, is because we are quite slow in approving a lot of
these projects and programs," Ejercito said.
"We’re hoping that through this bill, we
will be able to catch up especially in terms of infrastructure development,
which is, I think, my own estimate, we are about 30 years behind," he
added.
If the approval process of a given project
request exceeds the 150-day compliance timeline set in the proposed bill's
amendment, the lawmaker from San Juan suggested that the agencies and officials
causing the delay should be punished.
"They [implementing agencies] will be
liable or punishable if they do not act accordingly. They will be obliged to
act on the projects that will be submitted. Isang way ito para hindi ma-delay
ang mga projects," he emphasized.
Ejercito said his proposed Public-Private
Partnership (PPP) Act seeks to amend the outdated Build-Operate-Transfer Law,
which currently governs the financing, construction, operation, and maintenance
of infrastructure projects by the private sector.
Once passed, the measure is expected to
expedite approval processes for infrastructure projects, he added.
The PPP Bill is among the 44 priority bills of
the 19th Congress, as identified by the Legislative Executive Development
Advisory Council (LEDAC).
He noted that the proposed bill aims to
establish a PPP Center to streamline and centralize all the necessary
requirements and information pertaining to the process.
“The common complaint is that PPP takes a long
while especially if it has to be approved by NEDA," Ejercito said.
“Sometimes, tapos na ang termino ng Presidente
and that's the only time that the request will be approved. That's why we want
to already institutionalize this so that it will now be faster,” he said.
Moreover, the proposed PPP Act will expand the
coverage of existing PPP modalities to include joint ventures, concessions, and
management contracts. It seeks to provide clearer protest protocols and appeal
mechanisms in all stages of the PPP procurement process.
It will also prohibit the issuance of court
orders, except by the Supreme Court, against any PPP project. It will also
prevent government regulatory bodies from entering into joint ventures
contracts.
"We
feel that we do need to address some certain issues in the BOT Law. Like in
this PPP Act, we seek to address the ambiguities in the existing law. We aim to
address the bottlenecks and challenges affecting the implementation of the PPP
programs," he said.
