Senate panel OKs DPWH's proposed 2026 budget

The Senate committee on finance approved Monday the proposed budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for fiscal year 2026, subject to the discussion and submission of documents requested.

The DPWH initially proposed an P881.31 billion budget under the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP), but this was reduced to P625.78 billion after the removal of locally funded flood control projects amid the revelations of substandard or ghost projects.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian previously said that as much as P348 billion may again be cut from the proposed budget of the DPWH, following the revelations of "red flags" such as projects that have no station number, being duplicate, having multiple phases, or reappearing from the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) to the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP).

But during Monday’s budget hearing, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon gave the explanation for such red flags.

Among which, Dizon said, is the validation of 798 out of the 946 supposed reappearing items, amounting to P11.656 billion.

Dizon said that the DPWH already changed the nomenclature of such entries to identify whether they are projects still under continuation or for completion.

Asked by Gatchalian if the DPWH found any items that doubled or projects that were completed but reappeared in the 2026 NEP, Dizon said that there were none so far.

“Dito po sa 798, wala pong nakita. Lahat po ‘yun ay na-validate given the submissions. Do’n sa remaining 148, hindi po natin alam. That’s why, Mr. Chairman, ako I will put it on the record, if the committee will not grant us any more time, please feel free to just remove that,” Dizon answered.

(We found nothing in the 798 projects. All of those were validated given the submissions. As for the remaining 148, we don't know. That's why, Mr. Chairman, I will put it on the record, if the committee will not grant us any more time, please feel free to remove the allocation for those projects.)

Gatchalian gave the DPWH until Friday, October 31, to validate other projects that were not yet checked by the agency due to lack of time. 

Other red flags

Dizon also said that the DPWH already corrected 4,085 of 4,566 projects that were earlier tagged as having no station number. This amounted to P180.275 billion out of P201.272 billion flagged by Gatchalian. 

“Projects with no station limits now have been updated with station limits. For school buildings, station limit is obviously not applicable, so ‘yung school ID number nalang ang nilagay natin para klaro na it is real and not a guni-guni school (we provided the school ID number so it is clear that it is a real school and not imaginary),” he said. 

Dizon also stressed that the key to ensure transparency and to avoid duplicate projects is to detail each item specifically in budget documents. 

“Ang napansin po kasi natin dito dahil nga siguro napakahaba na ng budget ng DPWH, I think this is over 700 pages in the GAA, nagiging generic ang line items, when in fact dapat mas granular, mas specific. I think this is the right direction moving forward,” he added. 

(What we noticed here is because the DPWH budget is too long, I think this is over 700 pages in the GAA, the line items have become generic, when in fact they should be more granular, more specific. I think this is the right direction moving forward.) 

This, as it was revealed in the budget deliberations that several lawmakers reported that some projects in their own districts have “double entries” in the proposed 2026 budget due to variations in naming or descriptions. 

Gatchalian said that Batangas 3rd district Rep. King Collantes wrote to him, seeking to address the “double entries” under the House-approved General Appropriations Bill (GAB) in his own district.

Dizon said he received the same letter from Collantes and another one from Iloilo 4th district Rep. Ferjenel Biron. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News