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MANILA – The Aquino administration is likely to miss most of its targets in providing better, faster and safe transportation because of the government’s under-spending, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board.
In a report, NSCB said 17 out of 27 transport sector indicators under the Philippine Development Plan have a low probability of achieving their 2016 targets.
"Thus, the transport sector has to move double time to achieve the 2016 targets," the state-run NSCB said.
The Department of Budget and Management reported that the Department of Transportation and Communications topped the list of under-spending agencies, with P12.2 billion in unspent money earmarked for the first quarter of this year.
Total government disbursements in January to March reached P394.9 billion, or 10.4 percent below the P440.6-billion programmed for the period.
In rail transport, the NSCB said the targets for increased ridership and revenue-to-cost ratio are unlikely to be met.
"Sana wala ng train derailment incident like that with the LRT in Roosevelt in February last year. Also, let us hope projects such as the Line 1 North Extension Project, Line 1 South Extension Project, and rehabilitation projects will succeed in providing us with ‘Serbisyong Ayos’," the NSCB said.
The DOTC has begun bidding for the P60 billion LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension.
For air transport, the NSCB said the targets for increased international and domestic flights and passenger traffic are very likely to be achieved except that for the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.
"But we need to do something constructive and innovative to prevent flight delays due to the increased number of flights," the NSCB sad.
However, cargo traffic in all the airports has yet to increase as fast as passenger traffic.
In land transport, targets under the PDP that are unlikely to be met include the following:
But the government is likely to achieve targets for the following:
But the construction of paved roads requires speeding up from the 25,916 kilometers in 2011 to 31,242 kilometers in 2016.
"This will require spending annually for 1,065 kilometers of paved roads from now to 2016," NSCB said.
For water transport, the target of 217 million metric tons of cargo throughput has good chances of being achieved by 2016. "This will require that eight million metric tons cargo throughput be captured by the PPA every year," NSCB said.
In 2011, the Philippine Ports Authority recorded a cargo throughput of 178 million metric tons.
The target on the number of ports certified to ISO standards on selected processes however has a medium chance of success.
Worse, the following have only a low probability of achieving their 2016 targets:
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