DAVAO CITY – A business leader has expressed hope that projects lined up for Mindanao under the Duterte administration would be carried out.
Mindanao Business Council (MBC) chairperson Vicente Lao said the private sector will also work hard for it.
“Now that we have a Mindanaoan President, we have to maximize its benefits because of the big backlog on infrastructure and hopefully we will catch up,” he said on the sidelines of Friday’s Philippine Economic Briefing in Davao at the SMX Convention Center where Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez presented the flagship projects of the Duterte administration for Mindanao.
He said the current development is good and “it is about time because that should have been done a long time ago”. The economic briefing, in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), put emphasis on the development of Mindanao.
Dominguez said Mindanao today is at the front and center of the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program.
Among these projects are the PHP5 billion Malitubog-Maridagao Irrigation Project Phase 2 in North Cotabato, Maguindanao, which is expected to service almost 10,000 hectares of land in conflict-affected areas; the PHP4.86 billion Panguil Bay Bridge project that would connect Tangub City in Misamis Occidental and Tubod, Lanao del Norte; the expansion and improvement of the Davao International Airport and Languindingan Airport worth PHP40.57 billion and PHP14.6 billion, respectively; and the 102-km. Mindanao Railway Project. Phase 1, Segment 1 worth PHP35.26 billion that would connect Davao City, Tagum, and Digos.
Lao said the business sector will really push hard for the establishment of the Mindanao Railway System as a very important infrastructure. (Digna D. Banzon/PNA)