Corruption-prone unprogrammed appropriations, DPWH budget for 2026 slashed

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate committee on finance slashed the unprogrammed appropriations for next year as well as the proposed budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian disclosed on Wednesday. 

In his sponsorship speech of House Bill No. 4058 which contains the 2026 General Appropriations Bill (GAB), Gatchalian said corruption-prone unprogrammed appropriations had been reduced to P174.5 billion. 

“During the budget hearings, one of our most painful discoveries was that unprogrammed funds had turned into a magnet for corruption. In 2023, the total amount for flood control projects that was sourced from unprogrammed funds stood at 25.25 billion. In 2024, the amount increased to 85.78 billion,” said Gatchalian. 

“For 2026, the House GAB allotted 243 billion pesos. The Senate version trims this down to P174.5 billion. A reduction of more than 68.5 billion. Of the 11 line items in unprogrammed funds, the Senate version reduced them to seven, with only three cash items,” he added. 

According to Gatchalian, head of the Senate panel on finance, his panel examined the 2026 budget with a fine-tooth comb. 

“This representation personally sat through every budget briefing in all the sub-committees. And after all the budget briefings were concluded, we organized an additional series of Technical Working Group meetings, and we invited all the Senators and their respective offices to these TWG’s to get their thoughts and recommendations. Because we wanted to ensure that no stone was left unturned,” he said. 

Later, Gatchalian said th DPWH also suffered from a significant budget cut, noting that the agency’s funding for next year will be set at P568.56 billion. 

“We reduced the budget of the department by P55.91 billion. During the hearings, we discovered several red flags such as roads with no station IDs, duplicate projects, projects in multiple phases, and reappearing projects from previous year’s budget,” said Gatchalian. 

Despite President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s order to lower material costs for infrastructure projects, Gatchalian maintained that the reduction is not only to help comply with the directive, but also to ensure efficiency and more responsible spending. 

“As an additional safeguard against corruption, all DPWH projects have Station Numbers, Bridge IDs, and School IDs included in the Committee Report,” he added.

The 2026 budget amounts to P6.793 trillion, a figure that is 7.4 percent higher than the enacted 2025 budget of P6.326 trillion, and equivalent to 22 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Earlier, Gatchalian confirmed that they are still eyeing to pass a budget that is lower than the Palace-approved funding for the next fiscal year. /gsg