President Duterte Should Also Focus His Infrastructure Project On Building More Evacuation Centers

I am still skeptical about the planned massive infrastructure project planned by President Rodrigo R. Duterte can have really drastic consequences if it's not implemented properly. What can be advised for the Build Build Build program? This would start with finding good funding sources (such as opening up the economy to get more tax money) and prioritizing what needs to be prioritized. So what can be done?

The Manila Bulletin says that President Duterte himself has ordered for the building of more evacuation centers. His reason is because so less schools (and I assume these are public schools) will be used as evacuation centers -- in return this will minimize the chances of disruption of classes when the weather is fine. Also, current Education Secretary Leonor Briones has agreed to this proposal because using schools as evacuation centers can be very disruptive.

Here's the problem with Noynoy Aquino. One can argue that he did improve credit rating for the Philippines and it's true. He did pass at least 29 economic amendments to improve the Philippine economy and it did. The problem has to be the implementation and use of the money. He could have hired competent people to do the job rather than trust his peers to do so. While he did improve the economy to a certain extent -- he could have chosen to hire competent ones from other parties to help in the implementation. President Duterte should learn not to commit Noynoy's mistake in implementing his plan for more evacuation centers. These projects may end up suffering like Sagasa 2016 where Noynoy wasn't able to fulfill his ambitious railroad project.

This would also mean maybe it's time to study the excise tax law carefully for any critical mistakes. It's good that TRAIN law is reducing income taxes. However, applying too high an excise tax on gasoline can be very detrimental to business. I even think that the excise tax for gasoline should either be lowered or even removed. Maybe, we can start taxing vehicles more to control the purchases but gasoline is badly needed for transportation. Also, while I do appreciate adding excise tax on luxury items and sugar tax but be careful not to tax them too much either.

So why am I saying that Build Build Build should npw focus on evacuation centers? Sadly, the Philippines isn't really that disaster prepared. This would require careful study of where the best spots to build an evacuation center would be. This project should start repairing roads and bridges as well since we need good roads and bridges to reach evacuation centers. The project should focus more on efficiency and effectiveness of roads and bridges before establishing the more ambitious ones. After all, what's the use of having the expressways built if there's no evacuation centers and other infrastructures are neglected and in bad shape?