OVER 3,800 kilometers in roads to various tourism destinations have been constructed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) from 2016 to 2022.
These road projects were built under a convergence program with the Department of Tourism (DOT)—the Tourism Road Infrastructure Program (TRIP)—which the latter initiated in 2015, under the term of then Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. According to a DPWH report obtained by the BusinessMirror, Region 7 (Central Visayas) received the largest number of completed projects over the six-year period, with 551.74 km in tourism roads.
It was followed by Region 11 (Davao Region) with 421.27 km of completed tourism road projects, and Region 6 (Western Visayas), with 336.37 km. The least number of completed tourism roads were in Region 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) at 131.30 km, Region 12 (Soccsksargen) with 173.43 km, and Region 10 (Northern Mindanao) with 178.76 km.
‘No one left behind’
At the post-State of the Nation Address (Sona) infrastructure briefing on Tuesday, Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco said, “Specific to infrastructure through our continuing partnership with the DPWH, there have been over 158 km of roads leading to tourist destinations that have been constructed and are ongoing, and we’re very optimistic that in the coming year, investments in tourism roads will continue, so that we can continue to expand country-wide development as far as tourism is concerned, so we fulfill the President’s vision that no one is left behind, as far as the local government units’ benefit from tourism development.”
The same DPWH report showed 150.58 km tourism road projects completed last year, with Central Visayas having received the bulk at 28 km, followed by Soccsksargen with some 18.4 km, and the Davao Region with 16.09 km. There was no status report available regarding ongoing TRIP projects, which have been allocated a budget of some P17.7 billion under the General Approriations Act this year.
This year’s budget for TRIP projects is just slightly higher than the P17.09-billion allocated in 2022. Funding for tourism road projects account for less than 2 percent of the DPWH’s P893.12-billion budget this year.
Meanwhile, Frasco also said at the post-Sona briefing, “over 25 million Filipinos have benefited from tourism,” after domestic and international travelers spent some P1.87 trillion in the economy last year. There were 2.65 million foreign tourists who arrived last year and over 102 million domestic trips made by Filipinos the same year. “All of these translates to over 5.35 million jobs for Filipinos,” she added.
As of July 25, the Philippines received 3.1 million international travelers, almost 65 percent of the DOT’s target of 4.8 million arrivals this year. The agency is also targetting to return to the prepandemic level of 122 million domestic trips this year.
3 regions get bulk of tourism road projects of DOT-DPWH
Source: News Paper Radio
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