DPWH needs 4,000 engineers to bolster infrastructure efforts

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the lead agency in the implementation of the Duterte Administration’s “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) program, is employing 4,000 engineers to bolster their efforts for the implementation of the proposed infrastructure projects.

The DPWH has received the go-signal from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to hire more engineers to reinforce the agency’s expertise and capacity, according to Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar.

“The BBB program is all systems go. We’ve gotten the approval from the DBM to hire as many as 4,000 engineers to further strengthen the capability of this department, which is the engineering arm of government,” said Villar in a forum hosted recently by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines. His agency leads the BBB team, composed of the economic managers of the current administration.

The BBB program lists more or less 70 priority infrastructure projects that aim to solve the infrastructure crisis that the Philippines faces today; it is touted as the government’s “most ambitious infrastructure plan.”

This brings the Philippines into the so-called “Golden Age of Infrastructure”, with President Duterte issuing a policy on increased infrastructure spending throughout his term.

President Duterte’s mandate is to increase the budget for infrastructure development from 2.9% of the country’s GDP to as much as 7%. This hike in infrastructure spending goes hand in hand with the development of crucial infrastructure for the country, such as roads, trains, and ports.

via Business Mirror / Lorenz S. Marasigan