DPWH drowning in corruption
The mounting revelations of deeply entrenched corruption across all levels of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) have demoralized and enraged the Filipino public, who are confronted by more painful examples of how their hard-earned money had not only gone to waste but have enriched unscrupulous individuals at their expense.
They are therefore right to demand that the riveting tales spilling out of the Senate public hearings on the corruption-ridden, multi-billion-peso flood control projects will lead to severe punishment for the guilty and concrete, immediately actionable reforms that will finally put an end to this cancer that has long held back the Philippines’ economic and political progress.
Thus, pressure is mounting on Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman and newly installed Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon to deliver on their urgent mandate from President Marcos to comb through the proposed P881.3-billion DPWH budget under the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP) and ensure that every line item of the budget is entirely justified.
“We owe the Filipino people transparency and efficiency,” declared Mr. Marcos, who ordered the sweeping review last week in response to the investigation into the corruption in flood control projects and last-minute and unauthorized budget insertions, “The people’s money should be used properly.”
Dubious insertions
Dizon and Pangandaman had committed to a tight two-week timeline or by Sept. 16 to complete the arduous task, which if done right will mean that only those projects that will “genuinely serve and benefit the Filipino people” will be included in the NEP. Any items that will not pass muster will be either corrected, amended, or outright deleted as part of the purge of the NEP.
The final version will then be deliberated on by Congress, where intense scrutiny must similarly be applied to prevent the corrupt from making dubious insertions again. Ideally, the budget bill should reflect the President’s priorities and programs that will translate into reality his vision for the Philippines that certainly should not include questionable and worse, ghost infrastructure projects.
So far, Mr. Marcos had already declared that there will be no budget for flood control projects in 2026 as the initial review revealed that the original items in the budget “may no longer be necessary,” and that there was still money in place to complete vital projects.
Milking cows
Originally, the DPWH had asked Congress for P250.8 billion—about a third of the total proposed budget—for some 4,000 flood control projects that have emerged to be milking cows for corrupt public officials working in cahoots with crooked contractors.
Dizon, who had been yanked out of the Department of Transportation to head the DPWH amid the investigations into the flood control projects, had already committed to strike out all of the red flags—not just questionable flood control projects—in the agency’s budget that he described to be in a “state of disarray.”
He and Pangandaman have their important work cut out for them considering concerns that the entire budget is ridden with questionable items, ranging from the big-ticket projects down to overpriced rock-netting projects, cat’s eye installations, and suspected redundant asphalt overlay projects flagged by House Minority Leader Rep. Marcelino Libanan as likely sources of massive kickbacks.
Worse, several lawmakers had also pointed out that several items in the DPWH’s budget were either duplicated, redundant, or set aside for multi-million-peso projects that had actually already been completed, thus have to be weeded out in the revised DPWH budget for 2026.
Rigorous review
However, the rigorous review must not end with the line-by-line scrutiny of the budget of the DPWH, which stands to receive the second highest allocation in the record high budget next year, next to the Department of Education.
To further shore up the damaged credibility of the DPWH, the Department of Budget and Management, and indeed restore fragile public trust in the entire government machinery, that exhaustive review must be extended to include the identification of who exactly are tinkering with the President’s proposed budget to the detriment of the Filipino people, especially those who continue to be mired in poverty. This must include those who jacked up the DPWH budget for this year, which was reportedly jacked up by P200 billion at the bicameral conference committee.
This way, the Filipino people including civil society and business organizations who are angered and disgusted by the disclosure of sordid and blatant plunder of government coffers will know exactly who are inserting questionable allocations that have led to the wastage of billions of precious pesos every single year.
By knowing who they are and how they were able to game government processes, then they will be held to finally account for their shameful abuse of power and wanton betrayal of public trust.
