Sherwin Gatchalian: Senate to cut P8.836B in unsupported infra projects

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Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian on Tuesday said the Senate would remove infrastructure projects worth P8.836 billion from the proposed 2027 national budget because of missing documentation from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

In a statement, Gatchalian said the move followed the disclosure by former DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon that 295 projects had been found to be “non-compliant” in the agency's evaluation.

The evaluation came after Gatchalian flagged eight types of budgetary “red flags” during the DPWH's Senate budget hearing in September.

Gatchalian said more than 62% of the 11,395 infrastructure projects, or 7,107 in total, had at least one major budgetary red flag.

These included projects lacking station numbers and geographical coordinates, lump-sum allocations, overlapping or fragmented projects, and projects with conflicting types of work.

"The Senate is committed unequivocally in weeding out unsubstantiated line items, including those lacking concrete and verifiable technical support, to ensure that every item in the final version is shovel-ready. Unverifiable line items will not receive a single peso of public funding," Gatchalian said.

He said that the Senate would not allocate public funds to projects lacking the necessary supporting documents, saying every peso must be accounted for amid the country's sluggish economic growth.

"Malinaw ang mandato ng Senado, kung walang kaukulang dokumento, walang pondo. Kailangan nating siguruhin na walang puwang ang pang-aabuso sa kaban ng bayan lalo na ngayong mahina ang usad ng ekonomiya at importante ang bawat piso para pasiglahin muli ito," he added.

(The Senate’s mandate is clear: If there are no supporting documents, there will be no funding. We will ensure that there is no room for the abuse of public funds, especially now that the economy is growing slowly and every peso is important in reviving it.)

The People's Budget Coalition (PBC) has flagged more than P1 trillion in potential budgetary “red flags” in the proposed P7.2-trillion national budget for 2027.

PBC co-convenor AJ Montesa said P210 billion in the proposed budget constituted “soft pork” in the form of patronage-driven financial assistance.

Another P695 billion was classified as “hard pork,” consisting of politicized infrastructure projects, while P112 billion was identified as “shadow pork,” or unprogrammed appropriations.

Senate finance committee chairperson JV Ejercito earlier committed to inviting civil society organizations (CSOs) to observe the bicameral conference committee deliberations on the proposed P7.2-trillion national budget.

Meanwhile, Senator Panfilo Lacson said the Senate majority bloc supported efforts to remove questionable allocations from the proposed 2027 budget and ensure transparency in the budget-making process.— MCG, GMA News

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