In the last few months, an outraged public demanded reforms in the corruption-plagued budget process. A new leadership in both houses of Congress promised changes, but the current version of the 2026 budget shows old habits die hard, with House leaders getting a big chunk of the public works allocations for their districts.
The proposed DPWH budget is the lowest under the Marcos administration. Former DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan proposed P880 billion in August. When Vivencio “Vince” Dizon replaced him in September, he removed all local flood-control projects, further cutting the budget down to P625 billion. The House minimally reduced the budget even more by P1 billion.
The Senate further slashed the DPWH budget to P570 billion by removing what Senate President Pro-Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson called “‘questionable’ items.”
The final budget amount will be determined by the bicameral committee composed of members of both houses. For the first time in history, Congress opened to the public the bicam meetings.
The question: Can the bicam rein in the old practices that led to the biggest corruption scandal in recent memory?
Some red flags that the bicam should heed:
1. Two-thirds of the House-proposed DPWH budget can be considered “pork.”
Despite exposés showing massive payoffs to legislators and other public officials, the House still allocated some P400 billion in “pork” in the budget of the graft-prone Department of Public Works and Highways. District representatives, in coordination with executive branch officials, determine how these funds, called “allocables,” are going to be spent. Such discretionary spending is one characteristic of pork.
In the wake of a corruption scandal in 2013, the Supreme Court had banned pork from the budget.
In addition, there’s P100 billion in “non-allocable” projects—these projects are initiated by the DPWH but legislators and other officials can also influence who gets the contracts for them. The total DPWH budget proposed by the House for 2026 is P624 billion.
The Senate version of the budget, however, has reduced the DPWH allocation to P570 billion. The bicam is expected to reconcile the House and Senate proposals.
2. As in the past, the House leadership gets more in “insertions.”
The district of the new speaker, Isabela Rep. Faustino “Bojie” Dy III, is the top recipient of P23 billion in proposed insertions in the House-proposed 2026 DPWH budget. The districts of House appropriations committee chair Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Suansing and her sister, Sultan Kudarat Rep. Bella Suansing, ranked second and third, respectively.
Insertions are additional projects or allocations lodged into the budget by lawmakers during congressional hearings. These were not originally included in the DPWH-proposed budget.
In September, the DPWH had allocated P1.1 billion to Dy’s district. But when the House passed its version of the 2026 budget, that amount had tripled to P3.8 billion.
Similarly Suansing’s district was originally allocated P1.6 billion in DPWH funds but this more than doubled to P3.4 billion after House budget deliberations. Her sister Bella ranked third in terms of insertion amounts, with her district being given P3.9 billion after an insertion of P1.6 billion.
3. The former Speaker still has clout over the budget.
Despite resigning from the speakership and being accused of receiving billions of pesos in kickbacks, the district of presidential cousin Leyte Rep. Ferdinand “Martin” Romualdez was given the biggest chunk—P6 billion of the P500 billion in “allocable” and “non-allocable” DPWH funds.
This amount is actually reduced from the P9.9 billion the DPWH originally proposed for Romualdez’s district.
The only other district who received more than his is the 2nd district of Misamis Oriental, represented by Yevgeny “Bambi” Emano, which received P6.35 billion.
Resigned Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Elizadly “Zaldy” Co,” who was handpicked by Romualdez to be the House appropriations chairman in the 19th Congress, alleged that the Visayan lawmaker and President Marcos got billions of pesos in payoffs from flood-control projects.
Many good governance advocates have called for an equitable distribution of the infrastructure budget, depending on a locality’s population and poverty rate. But Emano and Romualdez’s districts are not necessarily the ones with the highest population or poverty incidence in the country.
Zamboanga del Norte is the country’s poorest province. And yet, the total proposed budget allocation for all of its three legislative districts, which is at P6.33 billion, is just slightly on par with Emano’s single district.
What was our process in writing this story?
We obtained two documents originating from the Department of Public Works and Highways which detailed the department’s budget allocation per legislative district.
One document focuses on the revised National Expenditure Program proposed by public works secretary Vivencio “Vince” Dizon in September, while the other breaks down the House version of the DPWH budget passed in October.
Metadata of the documents indicate that DPWH official Janica Anna P. Ojenar-Beloy prepared these files.
Where can I access the files used in this story?
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