3 days ago
6
Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!
Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.
Visit Suniway.ph to learn
December 16, 2025 | 7:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Why is Secretary Vince Dizon appealing to the bicameral conference committee to restore P45 billion in the Department of Public Works and Highways' 2026 budget?
In an interview on Monday, December 15, Dizon said there may have been some miscalculation on the part of the Senate when it approved an even lower DPWH budget, basing it on flawed assumptions about construction costs.
"We believe that the way the Senate reduced the budgets for projects, roughly 10,000 projects all over the country, was not accurate," Dizon said on ANC's "Headstart."
He argued that the material cost reduction underpinning the P570.48-billion DPWH budget was misapplied by the Senate, as it treated prices as uniform across all projects instead of considering the differences.
"On average, the overpricing of asphalt in Region 4B is around 70% to 68%. What the Senate did when it applied this adjustment was to impose it across the board," Dizon said in a mix of English and Filipino, adding that some projects would experience deeper and unnecessary cuts.
Projects at risk of scaling down
The DPWH chief also warned that roughly 10,000 projects are at risk of not being fully implemented should Congress refuse to restore P45 billion that the Senate had removed from the 2026 General Appropriations Bill.
He explained that if the legislature proceeds with the budget cut, the agency would be forced to modify project specifications to stay within the reduced allocation. For example, Dizon explained, a planned 10-kilometer asphalting project could be scaled down to just five or four kilometers.
“It would be a waste of what would be lost, and at the same time a waste of the laborers who could have been hired, as well as the economic activity that would have been generated,” he said in Filipino.
Dizon, however, recognized that the final decision rests with Congress, saying he was grateful for the opportunity to at least make his appeal.
"The Senate, the Congress, the bicameral conference will decide what to do, and the executive will have to abide by whatever the decision of Congress is. But we will be remissing our obligation if we don't point this out," Dizon said.
The burden of proof
Unusual appearance at bicam
Dizon's appearance at the bicameral proceedings over the weekend was also unprecedented, given that no member of the executive branch typically takes part in the final legislative process of the budget proceedings.
He, however, said that he was invited by both House Appropriations Chair Mikaela Suansing and Senate Finance Committee Chair Sherwin Gatchalian.
For the People’s Budget Coalition, the DPWH’s last-minute presentation and request during the bicameral proceedings were questionable, especially as the agency had about a month to raise concerns over the Senate’s budget cuts after the committee report was released.
Technical adviser AJ Montesa said the "burden of proof" should not fall on the House or the Senate to justify the requested increase. Instead of citing a few examples, he said Dizon should have presented an itemized list of the projects that would be affected.
"They should have done the due diligence of giving us an itemized list so we can see what specific projects we are talking about that will become unimplementable," Montesa said.
Unfair pressure. The budget watchdog also rejected the administration’s argument that keeping the P45 billion cut would hurt the economy.
Montesa said the public should not be asked to rely on trust alone, especially while the agency is still undergoing reforms and working to demonstrate accountability.
"The public will have no reason to trust them. So all of these should be justified, all of these should be explained in detail. But again, as we've pointed out, it's so late already. This is the bicam, they should have gone through this earlier. So it doesn't really restore any confidence, whether or not they pass this," he said.
Montesa also questioned the roughly two-hour delay before the bicameral conference committee resumed its hearing on Sunday, followed by another two-hour suspension, describing it as "alarming." It suggested that closed-door meetings may have taken place despite earlier promises of transparency.
"It defeats the purpose of having an open and livestreamed bicam in the first place," he said.
Gatchalian announced the bicameral conference committee's hearing on Monday will be postponed while Congress seeks clarifications on the concerns surrounding the DPWH budget.
