A House leader on Friday flagged the proposed P881.3-billion budget of the Department of Works and Highways for 2026, accusing it of containing funding for flood control projects that have already been completed. 

Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno, however, told reporters in a briefing that such a blunder should not be solely blamed on the DPWH, but also on the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), which reviews the National Expenditure Program (NEP) before submitting it to Congress. 

The NEP is the President’s proposed budget submitted by the DBM to Congress for its approval. It serves as the basis of the budget bill, which becomes the General Appropriations Act when enacted. 

Citing Marikina Rep. Marcy Teodoro, Puno bared that all proposed flood control projects of the DPWH for Teodoro’s district under the 2026 NEP have been finished already. 

However, the item for the Pasig-Marikina River Channel Improvement Project Phase IV, recently inspected by President Marcos Jr., has zero allocation despite the construction still ongoing. 

“Why put [a budget] if it's already finished? What if it gets approved without anyone reading it? Who will implement it? The agency, of course. It's like hitting the lottery because they don’t have to execute the projects, but the budget still lands on their hands,” Puno said in Filipino.

Messed up the budget

In his district in Antipolo, Puno claimed that flood control projects in Barangays Mayamot, Muntindilaw, and Mambugan also received zero allocation despite being a priority project, and still have continuing appropriations.

In addition, the lawmaker said that a project with a price tag of a hundred million suddenly appeared in the NEP, replacing the original line item for Mayamot National High School, which essentially needed the funding for being a flood-prone area.

Puno has no qualms in accusing the DPWH of messing up the budget, citing an instance where a project, supposedly receiving P70 million, suddenly ended up receiving P1 million. 

Sought for clarification, Puno told the Daily Tribune that he “will be investigating possible collusion between DBM and the DPWH during the budget process on all DPWH projects.”

The solon stongly posits that the DBM is equally liable for the said blunders. 

Deliberations on the P6.793 trillion proposed budget for 2026 had already begun in the House last week. Despite the purported anomalies in the flood control projects, the DPWH remains the second agency to receive the lion’s share of next year’s budget with P881.3 billion, next to the education sector with P1.224 trillion.

Puno chairs the National Unity Party, the second-largest political bloc in the House next to Speaker Romuadez-led Lakas-CMD. 

Almost all party members of the NUP raised similar concerns about the questionable flood control budget in their respective districts, according to Puno, revealing that even House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos approached him about the dubious funding for flood control in the first district of Ilocos—the bailiwick of the Marcoses.

‘Straw that broke the camel’s back’

NUP members, according to Puno, raise serious concerns over how the DBM failed to take notice of the supposed irregular patterns in the budget. This includes several projects worth P73 million to P93 million, all outlined in a single page in NEP.

In 2021, Senator Panfilo Lacson, who has been vocal about the alleged anomalies in this year’s budget, said that there had been duplication of projects worth P147.283 billion in the DPWH’s then proposed budget for 2022. 

Recently, the senator claimed that 67 House members in the previous Congress had complete control over the flood control project funds because either they or their relatives were the contractors for the government’s flood mitigation program.

President Marcos, in his fourth State of the Nation Address in late July, warned members of Congress that he would not approve a proposed budget that deviates from the NEP regardless of whether it results in a reenacted budget.

The stern warning was prompted by the allegations of billions of alleged congressional insertions in this year’s national budget. 

The 2025 GAA, initially set at P6.352 trillion, was trimmed to P6.326 trillion after Marcos vetoed P194 billion worth of line items deemed inconsistent with his administration’s priority programs, including P16.7 billion for flood control projects.