CAMARINES Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte has said he wants Congress to give its full backing to the commitment of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to stick with, and even expand, the “Build, Build, Build” initiative of the previous administration.

Villafuerte said this can be done by authorizing the new government to spend at least P500 billion annually over the next three years on infrastructure projects in such priority areas as Health, Education, Agriculture, Livelihood, Information Technology and Tourism—or the HEAL IT sectors—that the Chief Executive himself identified in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA).

Villafuerte said a P1.5-trillion economic stimulus package, which he and three other Bicolano legislators have proposed in a measure dubbed the Bayan Bangon Muli (BBM) bill, will “enable the Marcos administration to create millions of jobs, accelerate growth, and help the President hit his target of expanding the economy by 6.5% to 8%, pulling down the poverty incidence to just 9%, and propelling the Philippines to the status of an upper middle-income country during his term.”

The solon pitched the speedy congressional approval of House Bill (HB) No. 271, or the National Economic Stimulus and Recovery Act of 2022, as the President stressed in his first SONA last July 25 that his government would continue and even expand the infrastructure modernization program of his predecessor, former President Duterte, to “build better more.”

“This proposed P1.5-trillion stimulus package will let President BBM sustain and even expand the unmatched high spending on infrastructure development initiated by his predecessor, Mr. Duterte, while focusing such fresh investments on building and improving facilities for the new government’s priority areas that Mr. Marcos had listed in his first SONA, including the HEAL IT sectors of Health, Education, Agriculture, Livelihood, Information Technology (IT) and Tourism,” Villafuerte said.

Villafuerte, who is vice president for political affairs of the National Unity Party (NUP), was referring to HB 271 that he and fellow Camarines Sur Reps. Miguel Luis Villafuerte and Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata, and Bicol Saro partylist Rep. Nicolas Enciso VIII filed at the onset of the 19th Congress.

“HB 271 will let President BBM,” according to Villafuerte, “realize his SONA-declared intent to ‘build better more’ by prioritizing the funding of projects that target infrastructure building down to the barangay level, with the HEAL IT sectors as the focal point of public investments. Our proposed three-year, P1.5-trillion stimulus plan is anchored on the premise that the poor are provided priority employment and income-earning opportunities, particularly in the countryside to accelerate regional growth and boost rural incomes.”

Villafuerte is confident that the Marcos administration can raise enough funds for this proposed P1.5-trillion stimulus and recovery plan, given the assurance by Finance Sec. Benjamin Diokno in a post-SONA briefing by the President’s economic team that the improved tax system inherited from the previous Duterte administration would let Malacañang continue and even expand the previous government’s infrastructure program.

“The Duterte administration left this government a sound tax system, a much better tax system than he inherited from the previous administration, and we will enhance that tax system, that will give us more revenues,” Diokno said at the post-SONA economic briefing last July 26.

Villafuerte said HB 271’s spending focus on the HEAL IT sectors is in sync with President Marcos’ announcement in his SONA that among his priority concerns are agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, digitalization and e-governance, and jobs and livelihood opportunities.

He said that Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman in the same post-SONA economic briefing attended by Diokno, bared that the Marcos government’s top budget priorities are education, health, social safety nets, infrastructure and agriculture.

“As directed by the President, we shall continue with the ‘Build, Build, Build,’ and expand it further,” said Pangandaman.

Referring to the past government’s centerpiece initiative “Build, Build, Build,” President Marcos said in his first SONA: “The infrastructure program of the Duterte administration must not only continue but, wherever possible, be expanded. We must keep the momentum. And aspire to build better more.”

“Necessarily, infrastructure development will remain a very high priority in our drive for growth and employment … Infrastructure development spending will be sustained at 5% to 6% of GDP (gross domestic product) … Infrastructure development is of primary importance as it is a necessary element to improve many other sectors—to include agriculture, tourism, general economic activity, and even to governance,” the President added.