Philippines infrastructure needs more private money

Subject

Infrastructure policy under the Duterte administration in the Philippines.

Significance

President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic team met their Japanese counterparts in Tokyo on March 27-28 to discuss infrastructure cooperation. Duterte is planning greater fiscal spending, seeking official development assistance and accepting unsolicited private sector proposals for infrastructure development. Meanwhile, he wants emergency powers to expedite the bidding process in Metro Manila and, ambitiously, to tackle simultaneously the different infrastructure problems of the Mega Manila area and the rest of the country.

Impacts

• Congress will probably rebuff the executive push for emergency powers.
• Construction-related labour and supply shortages, and price increases are likely.
• Chinese construction on Scarborough Shoal could derail China-Philippine infrastructure cooperation.
• Land rights and access issues will bedevil Duterte’s infrastructure push.
• Internal security dangers in the south, including terrorism and guerrillas, could hit infrastructure projects.