DPWH sits on P165-billion unspent funds in 2024
MANILA, Philippines (Updated Aug. 22, 2025, 2:01 p.m.) — Despite having one of the largest budgets of 2024, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has P165 billion in unobligated funds, according to data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
In its agency performance review, the DBM assessed agencies’ ability to manage and execute their budget, listing their obligated and unobligated funds.
Obligated funds means that the budget is already legally bound to a project through contracts or purchase orders. Meanwhile, unobligated funds are capital that was released to the agency but remained unused.
In 2024, the DPWH had P1.4 trillion available to them, which came from its regular appropriations, unprogrammed funds, transferred funds from other agencies, as well as leftover funding from 2023.
The agency was still able to obligate P1.2 trillion in 2024, so its unobligated funds rate is relatively low at 11.8%.
The DBM gave the DPWH a “satisfactory” rating.
However, the DPWH’s recent controversies when it comes to alleged ghost projects and corruption in flood management projects warrant the agency extra scrutiny when it comes to how it managed its budget in this administration.
Around P545 billion has been spent on flood control management since 2022, according to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Despite this, flooding is still rampant during the rainy season.
Numerous flood control projects, despite being marked as finished, remain unusable due to poor building quality.
Despite the billions of unused funds, in 2025 the DPWH was able to get the highest budget for a single agency at P1.1 trillion.
The DPWH's high budget garnered contoversy as it took a bigger cut of the funds than the education sector, which is constitutionally mandated to have the biggest budget share annually.
Relative to its budget in 2024, however, the DPWH was not the worst spender.
When it comes to the worst spending rate among government agencies, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) had the highest obligation rate at 49.5%, with nearly half of its budget unspent. The agency was able to obligate P10.5 billion, while P10.3 billion remained uncommitted.
The DMW later issued a clarificatory statement, noting updated data that shows their utilization rate for that fiscal year had actually improved to 73%. As one of the youngest government agencies, only starting operations during the Marcos administration, the department has been actively focusing on job creation and hiring.
The DMW is followed by the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, which had P1.5 billion in unobligated funds, compared to its P2.6 billion in obligated funds.
The Office of the President also has a high, relative percentage of unspent funds at 21.80%, failing to obligate P2.7 billion. Its obligated funds were P9.7 billion.
The DBM noted that several agencies had several challenges, including struggles in procurement.
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to include a clarificatory statement from the Department of Migrant Workers regarding their updated utilization rate.
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