JV Ejercito says PH transpo modernization lags behind neighbors
January 10, 2023
Efforts to modernize the transportation system
in the Philippines need to be expedited as the country’s mobility
infrastructure is lagging by “decades” behind its Southeast Asian neighbors,
Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito stressed on Tuesday.
“My estimate is that we’re about thirty,
thirty-five years behind in terms of infrastructure development and
transportation modernization compared to our neighbors,” he said in an
interview.
Ejercito, who currently serves as vice chair
of the Senate Committee on Public Services, explained that the country’s
current investments in infrastructure development and transportation
modernization are still far from the ideal.
“For several decades, we have not really
invested much on transport the way our ASEAN neighbors did. We are only
investing about two percent of the Gross Domestic Product. It’s supposed to be
five percent for infrastructure development,” the Senator said.
The lawmaker from San Juan said improving the
country’s transportation systems, especially its railways, will boost ongoing
efforts to revive the economy after being battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With transportation, with railway systems,
more than airports, movement of people, movement of goods will be easier. That
will attract, of course, foreign investments. That will make doing business
easy and more convenient,” the Senator said.
“Transportation modernization and
infrastructure development will cost a lot but I think the returns to the
economy will be enormous,” he added.
Yesterday, Ejercito joined President Ferdinand
“Bongbong” Marcos Jr., officials from the Department of Transportation, and
representatives from the Japan International Cooperation Agency in launching
the tunnel boring machine for the Metro Manila Subway System project.
The Senator was the staunchest defender of the
subway’s proposed funding during the Senate’s deliberations on the 2023
national budget.
“With the launching of the subway's tunnel
boring machine, which will be used for excavating along the project's route
from Valenzuela to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, we are now one step
closer in making the country's first ever subway system a reality,” he said in
a Facebook post.
“With the poor state of our country's
transportation system, railway is the only way,” he added.
