The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is proposing a system that will keep track of how the government will spend its P330-billion economic stimulus package, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph G. Recto yesterday said.

Citing results of a Cabinet meeting held last Tuesday, Mr. Recto said line agencies involved in the implementation of the multi-billion peso pump-priming program will be asked to report to the Cabinet on the status of the projects either on a weekly or bimonthly basis.

"We recommended weekly or bimonthly reporting by agencies to the Cabinet on the status of the implementation," Mr. Recto told reporters.

"We want to find out how are they doing. What are the successes and failures of the projects? Have they bid out 60%-80% of these projects. Where are they now?"

Critics of the P330-billion stimulus plan, formally called an "Economic Resiliency Plan" which has a heavy emphasis on infrastructure, had earlier argued that its details remained unclear other than P160 billion is to come from the 2009 budget, P100 billion from a joint government-private sector infrastructure fund, P40 billion in foregone revenues arising from a tax relief measure and a lower corporate income tax, and P30 billion from added social security benefits.

The government wants 60%-80% of the stimulus plan — except for the P100-billion fund for infrastructure which was slated to be spent next year — be frontloaded in the first half of this year. The national budget was enacted into law only last month.

Also discussed at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting were additional measures to temper the impact of the global economic crisis on the Philippine economy, even as economic managers of the Arroyo administration were already seeing a bottoming out, Mr. Recto said.

NEDA, the agency primarily responsible for formulating economic policies, proposed that infrastructure investments be mainly channeled to the tourism sector, where prospects of growth are high.

"Our market share can increase because of what’s happening in Thailand," Mr. Recto said, referring to the renewed political unrest in Bangkok this week that forced a cancellation of key ASEAN summits.

More measures to support housing for the lower-and-middle-income sector should also be made, in addition to the interest rate restructuring already done by the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, the NEDA has proposed.