Senate, House in standoff over DPWH budget

MANILA, Philippines — Senators and congressmen were at a standoff at the bicameral conference committee last night over whether to restore P45 billion in public works funding cut by the Senate, with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) warning that the across-the-board reductions could render about 10,000 infrastructure projects “unimplementable.”

Reiterating an earlier appeal to the Senate, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon told the bicam that the department is not seeking the return of any flood control projects previously removed from the budget, but is asking Congress to restore roughly P45 billion that was cut using “uniform adjustment factors” applied across about 10,000 projects in the proposed 2026 General Appropriations Bill.

“We are not asking to return any project that has already been removed. No flood control project will be reinstated. What we are asking for is the return of the approximately P45 billion removed, please return this so we can implement it correctly,” Dizon said.

Dizon explained that while he agreed during Senate deliberations of the DPWH budget to cut overpriced funding, he warned that the method used by the Senate could undermine implementation.

Dizon explained that the Senate applied average adjustment factors uniformly, instead of applying them only to the materials or by taking into consideration the unique specifications of each of the 10,000 projects at stake.

However, Sen. Loren Legarda pushed back, citing that the cuts made by the Senate were not invented by the Senate but based on data that came from the DPWH itself.

“I am clarifying all these, lest, it be misconstrued that the Senate invented the number just to bring down the cost. Yes, we all want a lower cost, but these were inputs submitted to the Senate by the DPWH,” Legarda said during yesterday’s bicam.

Dizon said if bicam adopts Senate’s P45 billion cuts to nip overpricing, the weak economic growth this year could also spill over to next year.

House contingents supported DPWH’s position, warning that failure to restore the funds could stall infrastructure projects and further dampen economic activity if projects become unimplementable.

Dizon also acknowledged the public’s lack of trust in DPWH following corruption controversies, but said the department has issued directives to district engineers to enforce lower prices and block procurement if revised costs are not followed.

The bicameral conference committee is continuing deliberations on the reconciled budget, with lawmakers weighing cost reductions against the risk of undermining infrastructure delivery and economic growth.

In a previous letter to Gatchalian dated Dec. 12, Dizon formally requested the restoration of about P60 billion in its proposed 2026 budget that were deducted due to Dizon’s earlier projections of massive savings.

Before the bicam resumed yesterday, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson warned against accommodating DPWH’s request to restore items cut from its proposed budget for 2026 as this could potentially reopen the “floodgates to insertions.”

Lacson said that if the items the DPWH is seeking to restore are not in the Senate and House versions of the budget bill, neither chamber can act on it as they agreed to tackle only their disagreeing provisions in the bicameral conference committee.

P1 billion for Project NOAH

Meanwhile, the House bicam contingent asked their Senate counterparts to consider the allocation of P1 billion for the Project Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (NOAH), defunded during the Duterte administration.

“Ever since climate disasters have hit us, the (Project NOAH) website has had 35 million searches online; during peak times, 2.5 million searches a day,” Negros Occidental 3rd district Rep. Javier Miguel Lopez Benitez said.