Zero trust in DPWH

The bicameral conference committee deliberations — opened for the first time to public scrutiny — have been held up by the thorny 2026 budget issue of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which lies at the center of the sweeping corruption scandal that has stoked public anger and slowed economic growth.

Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon appealed to the Senate to restore the P45 billion that had been cut from the DPWH budget earlier approved by the House of Representatives, saying that failure to do so will affect the progress of over 10,000 projects across the Philippines.

In a letter to Senate finance committee chair Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, Dizon claimed that reducing the DPWH budget next year to P570.48 billion from the P624.48 billion in the House version could lead to “inaccurate costing and potential project unimplementability, which may lead to underspending and related legal and administrative issues.”

The Senate, however, believes that the budget cut was appropriate as the DPWH itself disclosed that its construction material cost estimates were as much as 75 percent higher than market rates, thus the issuance of an updated construction materials price data (CMPD) to guide the costing of public infrastructure projects.

Deadlock in bicam

Thus, based on the CMPD that the DPWH finalized, the Senate is standing pat on its decision to reduce the DPWH’s budget for 2026, leading to the deadlock in the bicam.

“Our fear is … that the cut made using our adjustment factors, as Sen. Win correctly pointed out, across the board roughly 10,000 projects in the General Appropriations Bill may result inevitably in projects that will end up being unimplementable because of the way that they were applied to the various projects,” said Dizon.

He instead appealed to legislators for DPWH to be allowed to apply the updated costing on a per-project basis, considering that projects cannot be implemented uniformly, given the different conditions in each locality.

An asphalt overlay in Luzon, for example, will cost far less than the same project in Mindanao. Thus, the DPWH had asked for discretion in properly applying the CMPD across all projects outlined in the 2026 budget.

And therein lies the problem.

Given the massive scale of corruption that had been uncovered at the DPWH through the anomalous flood control projects that caused precious taxpayer money to go down the drain, the widely held perception is that wrongdoing has been so baked into its bureaucracy that any suggestion of discretion in the application of the updated CMPD is met with serious doubts and howls of protest.

Sluggish economy

Even Dizon readily admits that the agency that had long been perceived to be among the most corrupt in government had lost the little public trust that it had enjoyed given the scale of the uncovered anomalies, not just with flood control projects but other multibillion-peso infrastructure projects as well.

“I understand, and the President also understands the hesitation. The DPWH practically has zero trust from our countrymen. And I understand that it seems difficult for us to be trusted,” Dizon said.

But with more eyes trained on the DPWH, perhaps it deserves to be given the opportunity to redeem itself and prove that the ills of the past will not be repeated.

After all, there is no overstating the urgency of vital infrastructure projects to start rolling out, not just to serve the people but to also provide the sluggish economy a massive shot in the arm.

It has already been said, but still bears repeating that one of the main reasons behind the slowdown in economic growth in the third quarter of this year to the unexpectedly low 4 percent was the pullback in government spending on infrastructure.

Painful reforms and strict policies

Allowing the vital projects to get underway will reverse that trend and accelerate economic growth in the coming year.

This will also encourage the private sector to get off the sidelines and invest alongside the government to generate employment and perk up household spending that powers 70 percent of economic activity.

It will obviously take more than assurances of painful reforms and strict policies on paper to restore public trust in the DPWH, but the long process must be allowed to begin.

The DPWH, for example, can be taken up on its challenge for the government and other stakeholders, including local governments and citizens themselves to double down on scrutinizing the implementation of its projects, from the time they are bid out until project completion, to minimize, if not completely eliminate, corruption.

The bicameral conference committee must take these into account as it harmonizes the differing versions of the DPWH budget for 2026 for the country cannot afford to bear the cost of any further delays in the implementation of legitimate projects, from roads to bridges and schools badly needed by Filipinos.