When Secretary Vince Dizon presented the Department of Public Works and Highways budget to Congress in August, he promised an end to the bad old days of anomalous infrastructure projects.
He asked Congress to approve a P643-billion spending plan for 2027, vowing that, unlike in the past, his department would only authorize projects supported by a program of works, a masterplan, local council endorsement, “certificate of implementability,” and geotagged photos.
Appointed to sweep the DPWH clean in the wake of the flood-control scandal, Dizon said, “the projects now are based on the actual needs of districts and regions, and not on the old budget formulas.”
The data show that the proposed DPWH budget is a balancing act that tries to square development priorities with the demands of legislators and the president’s desire to influence Congress.
The current budget does away with “allocables” and “leadership funds,” pools of money that had previously been reserved for legislators who can then allocate these funds to their favored projects. The DPWH has also tightened the screws on pork. Legislators told PCIJ that it’s harder now to get funding for their pet projects.
But some things have not changed. Lawmakers said most House members were still entitled to allocate funds from the DPWH budget for their projects, as long as they met Dizon’s requirements. A practice from the past—the use of the budget for partisan political advantage, especially with elections on the horizon—has not ended either.
Our examination of the proposed infrastructure spending across all legislative districts shows that as in the past, the DPWH budget favors the current House leadership. That was the case in the previous House (2022-2025), when Speaker Martin Romualdez’s district, Leyte’s 1st, received the largest share of DPWH funding of any legislative district. Likewise, Sandro Marcos’s district, Ilocos Norte’s 1st, was awarded the biggest slice of the “allocable” funds, the discretionary funding DPWH assigned to each district.
Similarly, during the last three years of Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency, the bulk of the infrastructure budget went to his bailiwick, Davao City.
The pattern continues. The 2027 DPWH budget withholds funds from supporters of Vice President Sara Duterte, who is a top contender in the 2028 presidential election. Romualdez, who has fallen from the administration’s grace, is starved of district funds as well.
Here are our findings, based on a document obtained by a congressional insider from the DPWH. We confirmed the accuracy of the numbers in the document with multiple lawmakers, staffers, and the department’s transparency portal.
1. No pork for districts of former House Speaker Romualdez’s Leyte 1st district and at least 16 Sara impeachment nay-sayers and non-voters
It’s an open secret in the House that each district congressman is entitled to a minimum P150-million allocation in the DPWH budget. This means they have a free hand in deciding which projects would be funded from this amount.
At least four lawmakers, two of whom are veteran House members, told PCIJ that these allocations are currently lodged in the Basic Infrastructure Program (BIP). They said the allocation of such funds has existed since at least the administration of former president Benigno Aquino III when it was still called the Local Infrastructure Program. BIP projects comprise local roads, bridges, ports, multi-purpose buildings, and water supply systems.
Numerous congressmen and staffers confirmed that the DPWH still allowed their offices to recommend projects for their BIP allocation, although these projects have to meet the stringent requirements recently set by the DPWH. These requests are usually made through district engineering offices (DEO) or smaller implementing units of the DPWH. Some House members told PCIJ they were delighted to see their projects included in the 2027 National Expenditure Program.
But some were not as lucky.
A sweep of all DPWH projects in the 2027 National Expenditure Program reveals that at least 17 legislative districts have zero proposed BIP projects. Among these is Rep. Martin Romualdez’s Leyte 1st District. The presidential cousin and former speaker is currently detained at the New Quezon City Jail over a P7.4-billion plunder case.
The 16 remaining districts have a glaring common denominator: they are represented by lawmakers who either voted against or did not participate in the vice president’s impeachment last May. Their districts, however, have been allocated funding for national roads and flood mitigation from other DPWH programs, not the BIP.
In the 2026 budget, only three legislative districts did not have BIP projects: Quezon City 3rd District, and Davao City 2nd and 3rd Districts.
There could be more districts without proposed BIP projects for 2027. We were only able to pinpoint areas without such allocations if they have a single corresponding DEO. An overall view of the budget, however, makes the pattern clearer.
2. Drastic cuts in public works funding for nearly all the districts represented by pro-Duterte lawmakers
Apart from the BIP, the DPWH awards projects from other funding lines like national highways and other infrastructure. In theory, legislators have no say on how these projects are allocated. For the 2027 budget, the DPWH proposed to provide a floor of P500 million each for most congressional districts, except for some districts in Metro Manila and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which have traditionally gotten less than other places.
The data show that the congressmen who abstained from, or voted no, to impeach the vice president received the minimum amount, while others who voted yes got two to 16 times more.
For example, Agusan del Sur’s two legislative districts were once favored recipients of DPWH funds. From 2023 to 2025, they each got about P5 billion a year for roads, bridges, flood control and multipurpose buildings, placing them in the top 25 percent of congressional districts in terms of DPWH funding.
In 2026, despite drastic infrastructure budget cuts, Agusan del Sur’s districts were awarded more than P2.7 billion each, less than previous years but still landed them at the top 15 percent of all districts.
That changed drastically in the 2027 budget. Along with 10 other districts, Agusan got exactly P500 million. In all, 34 of 46 legislators who did not support the impeachment had their districts’ spending cut, landing them in the bottom 50 in terms of allocated public works funds.
There are a few outliers, though, mostly because their districts are the site of major national infrastructure projects. The 1st and 2nd districts of Bukidnon, among the country’s poorest provinces, still enjoyed the largest proposed allocations. Its representatives, Audrey Zubiri and Jonathan Flores, abstained from voting in the impeachment. Rep. Jose Alvarez’s Palawan 2nd District also abstained yet got a relatively large proposed budget of P2.7 billion. In the past, these districts received the highest shares of infrastructure funding, based on DPWH records.
Another outlier is the district of Rep. Isidro Ungab. Despite being one of the House’s most vocal Duterte supporters, his district was awarded P2.5 billion in the proposed budget. Of this, P2 billion was for the Davao City Bypass Construction Project, Package I. The remaining P500 million is for other road projects in Davao City 2nd District.
Dizon claimed he’s not aware why some districts got a uniform, and relatively small, allocation of P500 million, and promised to “look into it.” But he posited that DEOs in these areas might not have been able to pass supporting documents for their desired projects on time. “We just really base it on finishing the unfinished, on top priorities ng areas, and also ‘yung compliance of requirements,” he told PCIJ.
Congressional insiders, however, said the disparities are related to the impeachment vote.
Budget expert and reform advocate Zy-za Suzara agreed. The allocations, she said, indicate that the administration’s priorities are “more political and less about what the country really needs in terms of spurring economic activity in the different localities.”
“It’s hard to look at this and not think about the political trade-off for the impeachment trial… You see that it’s playing out as well in the budget,” she said.
“They can say that,” said Dizon, “but wala na ‘kong magagawa dun (there’s nothing I can do about it).”
3. Big chunks of the public works budget awarded to House leaders
The House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III, who represents Isabela 6th District, and House appropriations committee chairperson Mikaela Suansing of Nueva Ecija 1st District are still among the top recipients of funds in the DPWH’s proposed budget for 2027.
From 2023 to 2025, the first three full years of the Marcos administration, both were allocated an annual average of P3-billion DPWH funding. This placed them in the top half of the allocations districts nationwide during that period.
In 2026, after they had risen to the House leadership, their allocations made it to the top 15 in the final 2026 budget.
Sultan Kudarat 2nd District, represented by Suansing’s sister Rep. Bella Suansing, also rose in the district ranking to seventh in 2026, and settled at the 17th spot in the proposed 2027 budget. From 2023 to 2025, the district was in the bottom quarter of allocations, with an average annual budget of P1.6 billion.
Rep. Gerville Luistro’s Batangas 2nd district was also a laggard in DPWH funding compared to the other five districts in her province. But things changed when she became the lead prosecutor in Duterte’s impeachment trial. In the proposed 2027 budget, her district got the biggest bump in ranking. It now has the second largest proposed allocation among all Batangas districts.
PCIJ sought comments from Dy, Suansing and Luistro; we will update this story once they respond.
For Suzara all this “shows the changing political calculus” in the House. “Kung dati, yung allies ni Speaker Romualdez yung mataas yung allocations. And then before him, in the previous administration, kung dati ang may malalaking allocations yung mga allies ni then-president Duterte at saka Davao (Before, former Speaker Romualdez’s allies got the largest allocations. And then before him, in the previous administration, Dutertes’ allies and Davao received the largest allocations),” she added.
AJ Montesa of the People’s Budget Coalition (PBC) said this is another indication of the continuing politicization of the infrastructure budget, unless the DPWH is able to prove that the projects lodged under the new House leaders’ district are direly needed to spur the economy
4. Multibillion road projects prioritized
Butuan City’s lone district represented by Rep. Jose “Joboy” Aquino received the biggest share of proposed DPWH allocation—the only one to reach above P8 billion. Much of these are earmarked for road projects under the BIP. An alternate route to the Maharlika Highway, the longest thoroughfare that traverses the country’s three island groups, has the biggest proposed allocation at P1.2 billion.
Next is Rep. Keith Tan’s Quezon 4th district with P7.2 billion. Nearly P6 billion is dedicated to repairs on the Maharlika Highway as well as its alternate routes in the province, namely Quirino Highway and Gumaca Bypass Road. The long-delayed Lopez Viaduct, a proposed elevated road along a flood-prone area in Quezon, was also apportioned P1.2 billion. Secretary Dizon saw firsthand the sorry state of these thoroughfares in January and vowed to prioritize their funding.
Another top recipient is Rep. Tsuyoshi Horibata’s Camarines Sur 1st district, which was allocated nearly P5 billion for the repairs of Andaya Highway, an alternate route to Maharlika Highway. Another billion was proposed for local roads, bridges and multi-purpose buildings.
Flores’ Bukidnon 2nd district has the third highest allocation, mostly for rehabilitation works along the Malaybalay-Gingoog and the Sayre Highways.
The Budget Amendments Review Subcommittee of the House proposed an additional P11 billion for the DPWH’s programs, saying that DPWH and other agencies had requested additional projects. This top up, said Surigao del Sur Rep. Romeo Momo, would help revive the country’s economy.
But Suzara, a former budget official, believes that more money for public works doesn’t always mean more development.
“DPWH roads and road networks are not supposed to exist in isolation,” she said. “They’re supposed to be connected to the broader economic development priority of the government,” she added. “We’re not spending for the sake of spending. The spending is a means to an end.”
PBC’s Abigail Modales echoed the same: “With this pork and with DPWH projects, it’s not necessarily only a question of where the budget is being placed anymore, but why these projects are approved, and at the same time, who benefits ultimately from these projects.” —PCIJ.org