DPWH scraps P255-billion flood control budget for 2026
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has struck off P255 billion of its flood control funds, bringing the agency’s proposed budget down to P625.78 billion.
This was done in line with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s order not to grant the DPWH a flood control budget following the most controversial corruption scandal in his administration.
Several DPWH officials and lawmakers have been tagged in a multi-billion-peso kickback scheme where flood control funds were allegedly laundered away.
Newly installed DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon informed the House of Representatives of the decision before the agency’s budget hearing on Wednesday, September 17.
“The revised budget amounts to P625,784,508,000 which is P255,528,051,000 or 28.99% lower than the originally proposed P881,312,559,000 budget earlier submitted,” Dizon said in a letter to Rep. Mikaela Suansing, the chair of the House Committee on Appropriations.
Dizon also said that the agency has already addressed issues previously raised by lawmakers, including the presence of duplicate projects and other initiatives that were already completed the previous year.
Both Marcos and the DPWH have recommended the reallocation of the funds meant for flood control.
From flood control, funds could instead be redirected to agriculture, education, healthcare, housing, labor, social welfare and information technology.
The DPWH’s budget has been the subject of intense scrutiny following the flood control mess.
By the time the scandal had broken out, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had already handed the National Expenditure Program to Congress, kicking the budgetary process into gear.
However, lawmakers from the House and the Senate questioned how they could even deliberate on a budget from an agency that was fraught with corruption scandals.
Some legislators floated the idea of returning the budget to the DBM, but it was decided that the DPWH would simply resubmit another budget, which would be corrected in Congress through the issuance of an errata.
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