TO complete the construction of roads, bridges and flood-control facilities, the government would draw in advance some P2.5 billion from the 2010 budget, outgoing Presidential Management Staff director general Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said.
Esperon said he would ask the Department of Budget and Management to release the money ahead of the calendar year.
“Funds shall be frontloaded from 2010 to priority infrastructure projects to ensure their continuous construction and timely completion, 24 hours, seven days a week,” he said.
The money would be used to finish the construction works for the Camanava—Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela—Area Flood Control and Drainage Improvement Project, the Cansaga Bay Bridge in the Cebu North Coastal Road Project and the Dinagat-Loreto section of the Dinagat Island Road Network Project.
The projects were among those promised by President Gloria Arroyo in her State- of-the-Nation Address to be completed before March 2010, Esperon said.
Esperon, who made his presentation on the priority infrastructure projects during yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, will resign on Friday and run for a seat in House of Representatives, particularly the sixth congressional district of Pangasinan.
A number of critical infrastructure projects would be completed this year, he said, including the “closing of the loop” of the MRT-LRT Balintawak and Roosevelt stations and the road linking the South Luzon Expressway and the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road which would be fully operational by February.
Esperon said the P4.5-billion Re-Regulating Pond of the Agno River Integrated Irrigation Project in Pangasinan would be inaugurated on Friday.
All 41,980 barangays nationwide will have electricity by December, Esperon said.
