By Roderick T. dela Cruz

The government has completed P26 billion worth of infrastructure projects in Luzon as of December last year, said a Cabinet official in charge of the Luzon Urban Beltway super region.

Edgardo Pamintuan, head of the Luzon Urban Beltway, said the amount represented the cost of five mega projects that were finished last year.

“I believe that this disputes the claim that developments in this country are not spread in rural areas. The creation of the super regions was precisely towards de-concentration of investment and economic development,” Pamintuan said in a statement.

Pamintuan referred to the World Bank report, which said economic development was concentrated in few urban areas in the Philippines and other middle- income countries, hampering poverty reduction effort.

Luzon Urban Beltway, or LUB, was one of the five super regions announced by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during her 2006 State-of-the-Nation Address. It groups most of Central Luzon, the whole of Metro Manila, Calabarzon and the provinces of Marinduque and Mindoro.

Pamintuan identified the completed projects as the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Toll Expressway, which was built at a cost of P20.97 billion; South Luzon Expressway Toll Road 1, or the Alabang Viaduct, P1.7 billion; Southern Tagalog Arterial Road, P2.511 billion; Batangas Port Development, Phase II, P6.177 million; and Diosdado Macapagal International Airport Passenger Terminal Expansion, P69 million.

Also completed in the same year were the locally funded components of the Edsa Development Project.

LUB in 2007 finished five infrastructure projects worth P24 billion.