Recto: Philippines' ODA-funded infra projects delayed

Philippine infrastructure projects funded with official development assistance are all delayed, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said on Tuesday.

The finance chief thus confirmed when senators asked about ODA-funded projects which Recto said might incur commitment fees if they would be further delayed.

"In my last seven months, from what I have seen, lahat delayed. But many of them started pre-pandemic and many of them kaya na-delay din because of the pandemic," Recto said.

"That's why we don't want that delayed and we want to fund it this year as well para walang dagdag commitment fees," he added.

Under the 2024 budget, some foreign-assisted projects were lodged under the unprogrammed appropriations. This means they will only be funded if the government collects excess revenues or if there are newly approved loans for foreign-assisted projects.

According to Recto, there are more or less P178 billion foreign-assisted projects for 2024 and the government will shell out P50 billion.

"So roughly P228 billion more or less (funds for ODA projects)," Recto said.

Since some foreign-assisted projects were lodged under the unprogrammed appropriations under the 2024 national budget, Recto said they followed a provision in the General Appropriations Act for this year to sweep all excess government revenues to fund these.

"Kung gagamitin natin 'yung mga natutulog na pondo para magawa 'yung mga infrastructure projects ng walang dagdag utang, walang dagdag buwis sa mamamayan, so 'yun ang ginawa namin kung anong inutos ng Kongreso," he said.

"At kung utusan niyo kami na huwag naming gawin 'yun at ibalik natin 'yung pondo, ibabalik namin 'yung pondo. Uutusan lang po ninyo," he added.

Senator Cynthia Villar, a member of the bicameral conference committee that finalized the budget bill for fiscal year 2024, manifested that they were not informed of the transfer of the foreign-assisted projects from programmed appropriations to unprogrammed appropriations.

"We were not informed that there was a transfer... ang tsismis d'yan tinransfer 'yung right of way ng DPWH at saka 'yung equity para sa foreign assisted project to unprogrammed account tapos hindi sinabi sa amin. Nalaman na lang namin. So I don’t know who decided on that. We were not informed," Villar said.

Senator Loren Legarda said she would ask the Senate Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office (LBRMO) about the decision to transfer the foreign-assisted projects to unprogrammed appropriations.

"Aalamin namin kung anong parte ng proseso pinasok 'yun para hindi na mangyari na muli na hindi naiintindihan lahat yung repercussions noon," Legarda said.