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The Philippines
AsiaSoutheast Asia

Duterte looks to Philippines’ private sector to reboot signature building plan

  • By the time he steps down in 2022, the Philippine president wants work to have begun on 100 priority projects under his ‘build, build, build’ programme
  • Nearly half of these will now be funded by investments from companies like oil and shipping giant Udenna and regional beer behemoth San Miguel

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Filipino labourers prepare steel reinforcement bars for the construction of a highway flyover in Manila. Photo: EPA
Bloomberg
When Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016, he promised US$165 billion in spending to “build, build, build” roads and railways in the Southeast Asian nation.
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The programme consisted of 75 key projects – including a railway stretching the length of Luzon, the country’s main island – along with thousands of smaller ones like schools, to be funded mostly from development loans and the government’s budget.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte shows documents during a press conference at Malacanang Palace in Manila. Photo: AFP
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte shows documents during a press conference at Malacanang Palace in Manila. Photo: AFP

Halfway through the president’s six-year term, only two of those key projects have been completed. Most have run into bureaucratic delays, or faced problems like acquiring land and financing to get off the ground.

Now Duterte is revamping the plan and giving businesses a bigger share of the projects, after earlier shying away from privately led projects because of financing risks and delays. That is a boon for companies like Megawide Construction, which is already planning bids for rail and other infrastructure projects.

“It’s a good opportunity for us,” said Edgar Saavedra, CEO of Megawide. “This is like a rebirth for the Philippines.”
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