MANILA, Philippines - BDO Unibank, the country's largest bank, is pushing for local banks to bankroll projects under the government's Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program.

BDO chairperson Teresita Sy-Coson expressed support for PPPs and enjoined other local banks to provide up to $1 billion to finance these projects.

"My role here is to support PPPs, infrastructure, multilateral assistance and government funding. We can work with contractors down the road, the private sector... I'm here representing BDO, but the other banks argee with me we can fund many of these projects locally," Coson said.

She added that the banks also welcome government and multilateral funding for the PPP projects.

"The market here is very liquid, we can do a lot of these locally since we can do the a syndication up to $1 billion,  it would show confidence in the infrastucture projects," Coson said. "Funding (them locally) would enhance credibility of these projects.

Earlier, President Aquino said he wants 8 PPP projects rolled out this year. One of the projects is the LRT 1 South Extension.

Last year, the government bid out just one PPP project - the P2 billion Daang Hari road project.