DEPDev lacks review of flood control projects below P5B, Gatchalian says

Proposed flood control projects that are worth less than P5 billion do not undergo scrutiny by the Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev), the agency’s budget sponsor, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said Monday. 

Gatchalian, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, thus said when Senator Risa Hontiveros asked if the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Department of Finance (DOF) consulted the DEPDev and the Regional Development Council (RDCs) before the flood control projects were approved.  

“Unfortunately ho, sabi sa’kin ni Secretary Balisacan, itong flood control hindi ho dumadaan sa DEPDev dahil ang kanilang threshold kapag PPP (Public-Private Partnership) projects, P15 billion. So anything below P15 billion, hindi na dadaan sa kanila kapag PPP,” Gatchalian said, citing DEPDev Secretary Arsenio Balisacan. 

(Unfortunately, Secretary Balisacan told me that flood control projects do not go through DEPDev because their threshold for PPP projects is P15 billion. So anything below P15 billion for PPP would not go through them.) 

“Pagdating naman sa GAA projects, P5 billion po ang threshold. So anything below that, hindi na ho dadaan sa kanila. So hindi nila nare-review ang mga plano kapag mas maliit ang mga projects na ina-allocate ng Department of Public Works,” he added. 

(When it comes to GAA projects, the threshold is P5 billion. So anything below that would not go through DEPDev. So the agency could not review the plans for projects that have a smaller allocation from the DPWH.)

Hontiveros, in response, raised concerns about the supposed “splitting” of projects so their allocation would be lower than the threshold. 

“Correct. Sa national expenditure ho makikita na go natin doon ang ibang mga projects na na-identify natin—isang project lang siya napuputol siya into many phases,” he said. 

(That’s correct. In the National Expenditure Program, we identified some projects that are like that—where there’s only one project, but it is broken into many phases.) 

Gatchalian previously revealed several "red flags" in the proposed budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for fiscal year 2026, such as projects that have no station number, being duplicates, having multiple phases, or reappearing from the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) to the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP).