Metro Manila, Philippines – Senate President Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian questioned the majority of projects listed in the proposed 2027 budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in a finance committee hearing.
Gatchalian stated that more than 62 percent or 7,107 of the 11,395 infrastructure projects under locally funded operations raised at least one of eight types of “red flags” identified by his team.
He said the projects are the following:
+no station limit/bridge ID: 2, 570 projects, ₱83.67 billion
+duplicated projects: 189 projects amounting to ₱3.94 billion
+reappear from the 2026 GAA to 2027 NEP: 258 projects of ₱20.78 billion
+no coordinates: 3,543 projects of ₱83.50 billion
+lump-sum projects: 347 projects of ₱14.79 billion
+overlapping/fragmented projects: 533 projects of ₱63.18 billion
+unspecified work scope: 62 projects of ₱1.52 billion
+conflicting type of work: 20 projects of ₱386.25 million
Gatchalian stated that while the DPWH has instituted reforms and improvements, a number of details still pass scrutiny.
He called on district engineers and directors to “clean” their data first before it reaches the national level.
“I’m assuming this is not intentional,” Gatchalian said.
Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon cited the agency’s decentralized structure and stated that with the many projects, it assumes regularity when regions and districts submit their data.
“But ang ginawa po namin ngayon is nag-add po kami ng layers of protection and requirements sa mga district engineers and regions,” he said.
[Translation: But what we did now is that we added layers of protection and requirements for district engineers and regions.]
He added that the department will pursue charges against district engineers if they sign a Certificate of Implementability but their project turns out anomalous.
“Although I would like to believe na meron naman dyan na mapapaliwanag [someone will explain],” Dizon stated. “But if they cannot justify it based on this, then pasensyahan na lang po [so be it].”
