Metro Manila, Philippines – The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will get rid of “allocables,” the discretionary funds allotted to each congressional district, dubbed as the new pork barrel, its secretary said.
In a press briefing on Monday, Jan. 12, Vince Dizon said the agency, through Undersecretary Nick Conti, is drafting a new budget bottoms-up budget formula.
“Wala nang palakasan at singitan sa proyekto. Hindi porke na in-endorse ni ganito at ni ganyan, automatic na nasa budget iyon,” he said.
[Translation: There will be no favoritism or cutting in line for the project. Just because it was endorsed by this person or that person doesn’t mean it’s automatically included in the budget.]
Allocables sparked public criticism in the midst of the multibillion-peso flood control probe, likening it to pork barrel which the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional in 2013.
Former DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo earlier told a Senate inquiry that it was then DPWH Undersecretary Maria Catalina “Cathy” Cabral who introduced the formula to determine district allocations.
Dizon said he is “quite certain” that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will approve the formula that gets rid of allocable funds.
“We will have to present it to the president for him to be apprised of it and approve it. Once that is there, the president will know. I’m quite certain of that,” he said.
A Philippine Center Investigative for Journalism (PCIJ) report earlier stated that presidential son and House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, the president’s cousin, received the highest share of allocable funds in 2023-2025.
Under the new budget formula, Dizon said all projects should have engineering plans and must be endorsed by development councils.
In a related issue, Dizon distanced his agency from the so-called Cabral files, after turning them over to the ombudsman in December.
“Ang magiging sagot ko sa kahit sinong humingi ng files na ito ay ito ay ipapaalam ko muna sa Office of the Ombudsman dahil sila na ang may kustodiya nito,” he said.
[Translation: My response to anyone who asks for these files will be that I will first inform the Office of the Ombudsman, since they already have custody of them.]
