As Dizon exits, DPWH reinforces LGU role in projects

MANILA, Philippines — Outgoing Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon said Tuesday, October 27, that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has revised its project approval policies to require coordination with local government units (LGUs), as Giovanni Lopez prepares to take over as the department's chief.

During a joint press conference with Lopez on Tuesday, October 27, Dizon said the department instituted a formal mechanism earlier this year to involve LGUs in public infrastructure development, with the goal of including local governments in the planning process as early as the budgeting phase.

"At the minimum, a Certificate of No Objection is required from the LGU; either (a) Certificate of No Objection, local masterplan or regional masterplan. These were not required in the past, but they are now," Dizon said in Filipino.

"Hindi na puwede 'yong mga DE (district engineer) gagawa na lang ng project kung saan-saan na 'di alam ng mga mayor," he added.

(District engineers can no longer get away with implementing projects wherever and without the knowledge of the mayor.)

These changes echo Malacañang's directive to strengthen LGU oversight of DPWH projects, issued after Bulacan Gov. Daniel Fernando claimed that around P41 billion worth of flood-control infrastructure in the province had not been coordinated with local governments.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. previously ordered a revamp of the approval process in September 2025 to address the removal of a rule requiring local governments to officially receive projects under former president Rodrigo Duterte's administration. The revision ensured that infrastructure projects could only be tagged as completed after they had been accepted by the concerned government units.

Uncompleted structures marked as finished by the DPWH helped expose alleged ghost flood-control projects and prompted parallel investigations by the House and Senate into various projects, several of which were in Bulacan province.

State witness Henry Alcantara notably certified some of these structures as completed during his tenure as Bulacan 1st District engineer, including a P55-million flood-control project in Baliwag. Alcantara's former aide, Wirt Walter Rosales, confirmed on October 23 that he delivered billions of pesos' worth of alleged kickbacks from flood-control projects to fugitive former party-list congressman Zaldy Co from 2022 to 2024.

Included in the "acknowledgment receipts" signed by Co's aides were separate sheets of paper indicating the project and the percentage of the kickback.

Carlo Rivera, an engineer alleged to have run errands for Alcantara, testified earlier Tuesday in the bail hearing for former House Speaker Martin Romualdez's plunder case involving the alleged P7.4-billion government infrastructure kickback scheme.