THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is prioritizing the upgrade of national roads next year and is allotting 65% of its proposed P90-billion 2011 capital outlay for the purpose.
“It’s just a matter of defining what your priorities are. Our budget for road maintenance will remain the same but the priority will be the national roads. We will not do any local roads for the meantime,” Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said at the sidelines of the recent membership meeting of the Management Association of the Philippines.
The country has 15,731 kilometers of national arterial roads and 14,168 kilometers of national secondary roads, both maintained by the DPWH. Only 86% of national arterial roads are paved, of which 27% need rehabilitation.
For the secondary roads, only 63% are paved, of which 25% require repair.
The DPWH eyes the paving of all national roads and 78% of secondary roads under the agency’s medium-term plan that runs through 2016.
In terms of paved road ratio, the Philippines lags behind other Southeast Asian countries. Based on the Philippines’ total road length of 213,425 kilometers, it has a paved road ratio of 0.25, lower than Thailand’s 0.82, Malaysia’s 0.75, Indonesia’s 0.48 and Vietnam’s 0.35.
