The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) slashed a big chunk from its original proposed budget for next year.

Facing the House Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday, September 17, DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon explained that a total of P252.53 billion was cut from the original amount of the agency’s proposed budget of P881.312 billion following careful scrutiny as directed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Dizon said the slashed amount referred to the supposed allocation for locally-funded flood control projects and only foreign-assisted flood control projects for next year were retained with an allocation of P15.77-billion.

"As everyone is already aware, the President has repeatedly said that he wants the budget for locally-funded flood control to be zero for 2026," Dizon said.

This leaves DPWH with only a P625.784 billion budget for next year. The said amount is 28.99 percent lower than the first proposal under the National Expenditure Program (NEP). 

Sec. Dizon clarified that the President Marcos only wants swift completion of all existing or ongoing flood control projects nationwide but it doesn’t mean that the government leaves a total zero budget for flood control. 

"Hindi ibig sabihin ay wala nang flood control unang-una, para sa Metro Manila. May budget din [ang] MMDA sa flood control. Hindi totoo [na] zero. May budget [ang] foreign-assisted projects tulad [ng] Pasig-Marikina area. Tuloy naman po ‘yun," he explained.

Dizon assured they will make careful considerations when preparing the proposed budget for  2027. He admitted that weeding out suspicious allocations from the agency’s budget does not happen overnight.

Among the items removed from next year’s funding include duplicate and completed projects, overlapping sections in road projects as well as rock netting, cat’s eye and studs’ projects.

Ghost Projects ‘here and there’

Apart from the said projects, the DPWH is continuously investigating other flood control projects for possible corruption. Recently, Dizon led the filing of cases against those involved in irregularities.

"We are preparing. As of the moment, three more cases but we are currently investigating more than a hundred projects nationwide," Dizon noted, adding that the agency has been receiving complaints of irregularities in infra projects with traces back from the previous administration up until this year.

"Based on the discussion with the ICI in the past few days is tuloy-tuloy ang pagpa-file and we are targeting one case every week ang ipa-file," he further said.

Likewise, Sec. Dizon took note of the revelations made by Mayor Joy Belmonte about ghost projects in Quezon City which they plan to review as well. 

He ensured that the DPWH will closely cooperate with the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) for the filing of appropriate complaints against those involved.

With this, the secretary expects the investigation to expand as the agency received more complaints apart from those already submitted and those received through the president’s portal ‘Sumbong sa Pangulo’.