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Neil Jayson Servallos - The Philippine Star
September 26, 2026 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Questioning the lapsed legal mandate of acting Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon, the Senate flagged 7,107 Department of Public Works and Highways infrastructure projects worth P251 billion for data anomalies yesterday.
During the DPWH budget deliberations, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said the projects required rigorous data cleanup by regional and district engineers before the Senate could finalize its committee report.
He warned that the DPWH central office could be overwhelmed if local engineers passed on messy or incomplete data involving nearly 12,000 projects overall.
“Our district engineers and regional directors should be the ones to clean up your data because of the sheer number of projects. There are almost 12,000 projects, and if they all reach the central office, it will be very difficult for them to clean up,” Gatchalian said. “Hopefully, I’m assuming this is not intentional. I hope.”
Gatchalian said his office identified eight red flags, including duplicated projects, misplaced or missing station numbers, missing coordinates, lump-sum appropriations, overlapping projects, unspecified work scope and conflicting types of work.
He also flagged projects that were already funded in 2026 but reappeared in the proposed 2027 budget.
Expired mandate
Sen. Imee Marcos, meanwhile, questioned Dizon over his lapsed legal mandate to lead the DPWH, noting that Dizon was appointed in an acting capacity in September last year.
Citing the Administrative Code of 1987, she said temporary designations cannot exceed one year.
“Today is what, Sept. 25, 2026? Overdue na po kayo ng ilang araw, 24 days. What is the present status, therefore, of your appointment?” Marcos told Dizon yesterday.
Dizon said he was informed by his staff that the Office of the President considers his appointment as “continuing.”
Marcos rejected the “holdover” justification, arguing that the principle cannot override an explicit prohibition in the law.
Dizon said he would gladly step down if he were legally required to do so.
“To be quite frank, it would be very welcome if what you’re saying is that I am no longer the DPWH secretary. I will be more than happy to accept that,” he said.
Marcos ended the exchange by demanding a formal legal explanation from the DPWH regarding Dizon’s exact status.
The House of Representatives, for its part, concluded plenary deliberations on the proposed P643.95-billion DPWH budget for 2027, with stricter safeguards for infrastructure projects.
As part of its reforms to curb corruption, Dizon said more than 11,000 infrastructure projects would be posted on a transparency portal for public review and scrutiny.
Romualdez to take witness stand
In a related development on the flood control scandal, former Speaker Martin Romualdez will “most likely” take the witness stand to defend himself in the P7.4 billion plunder case against him over his alleged involvement in the controversial kickback scheme from flood control projects, according to his lawyer.
“He wants his day to defend himself in court, and he will most likely testify,” lawyer Ade Fajardo said.
He said the alleged bagmen of co-defendant Zaldy Co could also be called to testify. — Emmanuel Tupas, Daphne Galvez
