Fourth and fifth of 12 parts
IN my guest columns published on July 9, 2026, and Aug. 20, 2026, I presented part 1 of the Philippine Century Blueprint, envisioning the Philippines as the largest economy in Southeast Asia by 2034, followed by parts 2 and 3, “Building a human-capacity economy through artificial intelligence (AI)-driven world-class education.” Copies are at https://tinyurl.com/4z2zxrfk.
The Philippines does not need to choose between accountability for corruption in flood control projects and solving flooding. Both are necessary. Investigations address what happened; a national strategy must address recurring floods.
The Philippine Century Blueprint proposes treating floodwaters not simply as a hazard, but as a resource to be captured, controlled, stored and used through a nationwide network of underground reservoirs and conveyance tunnels.
The concept can be seen in BGC and, on a much larger scale, Tokyo’s underground flood control cathedral-scale system. Applied to Metro Manila and the country, large-diameter tunnels would capture excess rainfall, store it underground and direct it toward the nearest sea or bay, including Manila Bay. Where practical, treated water could also serve Central Luzon irrigation.
Illustrations of the proposed Metro Manila floodwater-capture tunnel network of 887.5 kilometers (km) and interisland, sub-seabed tunnel linkages are at the same https://tinyurl.com/4z2zxrfk.
The blueprint proposes approximately 5,200 km of underground tunnels. The total tunnels are supported by approximately 79 tunnel boring machines (TBMs), with 12.5-meter bores.
This builds on Philippine tunneling capability. Twelve TBMs are being used for the Metro Manila Subway project, involving about 30 km of tunnel boring. These machines should not be abandoned when the subway project is completed. They should be refurbished — given their 20-plus year operational life — where technically and economically feasible, and redeployed to begin the national tunneling program for flood control, regional infrastructure and interisland connectivity.
The tunnels should not be single-purpose. In congested urban centers, portions could serve underground roadways and traffic-relief corridors when not needed for floodwater storage or conveyance, while properly designed sections could provide emergency or civil-defense facilities.
The same TBM capability could eventually support subsea tunnels connecting Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao, and other islands.
The proposed program would require approximately P9.2 trillion over 10 years.
The blueprint’s central principle is self-financing national development. Foreign multilateral loans would carry an extended grace period before principal repayment and capitalization of interest. Debt service would be an off-budget obligation, repaid from program-generated commercial export revenues.
Through a government-owned corporation or national development authority, the Philippines could design and manufacture TBMs domestically, particularly in Subic, develop tunneling expertise and export TBMs, tunneling services and engineering expertise. Export proceeds would service the loans.
Under the Blueprint’s proposed financing model, the Filipino people shall not pay a single peso to repay the investment loan. Principal and capitalized interest would instead be repaid from export earnings generated by the industrial and engineering capabilities established through the program, rather than from taxes.
The blueprint’s integrated nominal GNI projections are attributable solely to the tunneling program and directly associated activities — flood control, agricultural gains, regional and interisland programs, international engineering exports and Palawan connectivity. They exclude traditional GNI sectors and are not projections of total Philippine GNI.
On that tunneling-related basis alone, the blueprint projects $575 billion by 2034, $1,573.5 billion by 2040, $3,180 billion by 2050, $5,927 billion by 2060 and $8,927 billion by 2070. It further projects that the Philippines will reach a high-income threshold of $13,900 per capita by 2038 and, by 2070, rank among the world’s top 10 economies, with nominal GNI reaching approximately $9 trillion.
The fundamental question is whether the Philippines can design flood control infrastructure so that the infrastructure itself generates the resources needed to repay the investment without placing debt service on the regular national budget.
That is the systemic approach envisioned in parts 4 and 5 of the Philippine Century Blueprint.
leandrovercelesjr@gmail.com
Lawyer Leandro B. Verceles Jr., BSBA, LLB, MPA, is the architect of the Philippine Century Blueprint. He is the principal author of the landmark E-Commerce Act (Republic Act 8792), which established the legal framework for electronic commerce and digital transactions, and helped usher in the Philippine digital economy, including BPO/IT, e-commerce, fintech, digital banking, digital payments and online government services. He served as a three-term congressman and two-term governor of Catanduanes, chaired the House ICT subcommittee and served as senior vice chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations for nine years. He writes on public policy, AI, governance innovation and long-term economic strategy.
