CLARK FREEPORT – Senate Majority leader Sen. Allan Peter Cayetano has urged the government to decentralize by investing more in the provinces, as he hit “inequitable distribution” of infrastructure projects that heavily favored only Metro Manila.
In his recent speech before the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PamCham), Cayetano noted that the National Capital Region (NCR) is already too congested, as he cited latest statistics indicating a ratio of 19,137 people per square kilometer in the metropolis.
This, he noted, is in contrast to only 460 population per square kilometer in Central Luzon. Cayetano also cited “inequality” in government allocation of funds, favoring the NCR despite statistics that some regions have already overtaken it in economic growth.
“From 2011 to 2012, NCR’s economy grew by only 6.8 percent, while the Zamboanga peninsula posted 12.4 percent growth, Caraga region by 10.6 percent, and Central Visayas by 9.3 percent,” he noted.
Cayetano said that despite this, P129.4 billion or about 13.07 percent of the national budget for 2014 was allocated for NCR. Central Luzon got only P88.9 billion or a mere 8.98 percent of the entire budget.
In terms of public works projects this year, the NCR got P23.7 billion, or about 15.7 percent of the entire public works projects, as compared to only P11.9 billion or 7.9 percent for Central Luzon. He also noted that in 2013, eight out of 10 major infrastructure projects of the government were in NCR, costing P142.3 billion out of the P184.2 billion total public works projects.
This year, 68.7 percent of public works project cost of P59.4 billion “go exclusively to NCR,” he added. Cayetano also observed that in the road projects named in the government’s development plan from 2011 to 2016, 15 new road projects costing P245.9 billion are within Metro Manila.
From 2001 to 2010, about 71 percent of budget for airports went to NCR, while all three railways projects were also in the metropolis. Clark airport Cayetano batted for the full development of the Clark International Airport here as a measure to decongest Metro Manila and spread out investments to the provinces.
“Metro Manila will not die if other (regions) are given the chance to grow,” he said. He also considered prospects of establishing a new NCR outside of Metro Manila, saying this could the Central Luzon.
Cayetano cited the case of Malaysia which moved the capital of its government from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya. He noted that “in 1999, Malaysia shifted its seat of government from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya, due to overcrowding and congestion in the Kuala Lumpur (KL) areas.”
“While KL still remains the seat of the King and of Parliament, as of 2012, almost all of Malaysia’s governmental ministries had relocated to Putrajaya. Putrajaya was the brainchild of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, and it is now a bustling planned city, and home to the world’s largest roundabout,” he added.
