DPWH grilled on ineffective flood projects costing P1.2 trillion

House lawmakers on Thursday questioned why the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has been unable to ease flooding when the government has already spent P1.2 trillion on flood control projects since 2009.

During the DPWH budget deliberation, Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro asked Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan why “until now, flooding is just the same as Ondoy,” referring to the typhoon that caused record-deep floodwaters in Metro Manila and nearby areas.

Quimbo, senior vice chair of the appropriations committee, pointed out that two metropolitan projects that were supposed to help with flooding, the Pasig-Marikina River Channel Improvement Project and Metro Manila Flood Management Project Phase 1, were characterized by negative slippages, low fund use, and major delays.

READ: Senators grill DPWH chief over lack of nat’l flood control master plan

Both are foreign-assisted projects under the DPWH, primarily funded by foreign lenders but often need a counterpart fund from the General Appropriations Act.

Drastically reduced

Bonoan replied that part of the problem was that budgetary allocations for official development assistance-funded programs were “drastically reduced against our national expenditure program proposals.”

He was referring to the agency’s zero allocation for foreign-assisted projects in 2024 despite its request for P70 billion.

“This is very challenging on the part of DPWH because these are crucial infrastructure flagship projects…,” said Undersecretary Catalina Cabral.

Fearing a repeat in 2025, Bonoan asked lawmakers to approve their request to have P70 billion allocated to fund foreign-assisted projects “to accelerate the implementation of our projects.”