Ejercito, DPWH agree to drop noncompliant projects from 2027 budget

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. JV Ejercito has secured the commitment of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to remove infrastructure projects with incomplete documentary requirements from the proposed 2027 national budget.

Ejercito, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, met on Friday with newly appointed Public Works Secretary Giovanni Lopez and the latter’s predecessor, now Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon, to discuss budget concerns and ensure the continuation of DPWH reforms, particularly in the evaluation and approval of infrastructure projects.

Following the meeting, Ejercito sent a formal letter to Lopez setting Nov. 3 as the deadline for the DPWH to submit complete documentary requirements and justifications for 6,271 infrastructure projects newly introduced in the House-transmitted General Appropriations Bill (GAB).

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Projects that fail to comply with the requirements will be removed from the proposed 2027 DPWH budget before plenary deliberations.

A comparative review by the Senate finance panel revealed that the total number of DPWH infrastructure projects swelled from 11,420 under the National Expenditure Program (NEP) to 16,244 in the GAB.

Of the entries in the GAB, 6,271 new projects were not part of the executive branch’s original submission.

“We need to boost our infrastructure spending, but not at the expense of the reforms we want to be instituted. Every delayed project has an economic cost. And every anomalous, poorly vetted project costs us even more: it wastes taxpayers’ money, deprives endangered communities of safety, and erodes public trust,” Ejercito said.

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During the DPWH budget briefings in September, Ejercito flagged 155 flood control projects worth P8.2 billion that lacked required documents, including Certificates of Implementability, Programs of Works (POW), and geotagged photographs. These requirements are part of the stricter project evaluation measures introduced under Dizon’s leadership during the preparation of the 2027 NEP.

In his letter to Lopez, Ejercito cited the reform commitments initiated during Dizon’s tenure and urged the new leadership to uphold the same rigorous vetting standard.

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“Under the leadership of Secretary Vince Dizon, the DPWH committed that it will ensure that all infrastructure projects proposed for funding comply with the agency’s documentary requirements,” the letter read.

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“We must continue to ensure that public funds are allocated to projects that are properly justified, implementation-ready, and responsive to the needs of our constituents.”

Both Lopez and Dizon assured Ejercito of the agency’s full cooperation in enforcing the vetting process to ensure noncompliant and questionable items would be removed before the national budget reaches plenary debates.

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Ejercito also stressed that these reforms should be institutionalized through his proposed Senate Bill No. 2, or the proposed Masterplan for Infrastructure and National Development (MIND) Act, which seeks to establish a long-term, integrated infrastructure master plan to guide national development beyond changes in administration. /atm