Build Build Build Program

Definition

Build Build Build was the infrastructure program of the Duterte administration (2016–2022), billed as the “Golden Age of Infrastructure.” It pooled some seventy-five flagship projects—expressways, railways, airports, seaports, and urban transit—with public infrastructure spending pushed from about 3 percent toward 5–7 percent of GDP, implemented chiefly by DPWH, DOTr, BCDA, and the NEDA board’s inter-agency committee.

Identities

Source Type	Identity
Wikipedia	Build! Build! Build!
Wikidata	Q111973498
DBpedia	N/A

Also Known As

Build! Build! Build!; BBB program; Golden Age of Infrastructure; “Build Better More” (successor framing).

Examples and Analogies

The program functions like a national public-works stimulus comparable to China’s post-2008 infrastructure push or the U.S. Interstate-era investment, using a “flagship menu” of projects. The Metro Manila Subway is its marquee rail piece, playing the role that the first MRT line played for the 1980s.

Usage Scenarios

Projects deliver commuter rail (North–South Commuter Railway, Subway), expressway links (Skyway Stage 3, CALAX, SLEX connectors), airport capacity (Clark, New Manila Airport in Bulacan discussions, regional gateways), and flood management; procurement proceeds through PPP variants, official development assistance, and hybrid funding modes.

Strategies

Financing strategies blended ODA loans (Japan JICA, China, ADB, World Bank), PPP and hybrid-PPP arrangements, and general appropriations; delivery strategy used “swiss challenge” and unsolicited-proposal routes, while NEDA-ICC screening sequenced appraisals. Continuity strategy under the Marcos administration rebranded the pipeline as “Build Better More.”

Security and Safety Measures

Safeguards include procurement law (RA 9184) competitive bidding and audit by COA, sovereign-debt ceiling and fiscal-risk reviews for loans, right-of-way due process under expropriation law, and construction safety standards on sites; transparency portals track flagship status.

Historical Context

Launched in 2017 amid diagnoses that decades of underinvestment (2–3 percent of GDP) caused the country’s infrastructure gap, BBB accelerated projects like Skyway Stage 3 (opened 2021), the subway groundbreaking (2019), and the New Clark City sports complex used in the 2019 SEA Games, before pandemic lockdowns slowed works and re-scoped financing.

Challenges and Controversies

Criticisms target right-of-way delays and informal-settle displacement, debt sustainability and Chinese-loan condition concerns, project rationalizations and dropouts from the flagship list, procurement controversies, and completion timelines extending beyond the program’s political horizon.