House Deputy Minority Leader Edgar “Egay” Erice has called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to dismiss Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, accusing the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) of ignoring massive anomalies within the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

In an interview with DZRH, the Caloocan lawmaker claimed that “enormous sums of money” had disappeared from DPWH appropriations over the past three years — amounts that, if true, would make the alleged scam one of the largest in recent history.

“From 2023, P300 billion went missing, followed by P500 billion in 2024, and another P400 billion in 2025,” Erice said in a mix of English and Filipino. “The DBM knows all about that. I believe so.”

He said the DBM’s inaction suggested either extreme negligence or gross incompetence, noting that despite mounting evidence of corruption, the department merely trimmed the DPWH budget by P29 billion this year after public outrage and a presidential directive.

The reduction, he said, “left most of the disputed funds intact.”

Erice argued that senior DBM officials may be hesitant to act due to the influence of powerful legislators, particularly former House Appropriations Committee chair Zaldy Co, and the political clout of former Speaker Martin Romualdez and presidential son Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos.

“So that means the secretaries might be thinking the President knows what’s being done, that he’s allowing it, and that Senate President Chiz [Escudero], who is close to Zaldy Co, also approved it,” Erice said, implying what he described as high-level coordination.

Asked if the President could be unaware of the alleged collusion among the DPWH, DBM, and Congress, Erice replied, “It’s possible. As I said, they might be thinking Speaker Romualdez is very powerful, the Senate President concurs, and Zaldy Co is very influential — so they might assume the President also concurs.”

Impunity

Erice said the perception of political impunity had weakened institutional oversight and emboldened agencies to pass questionable appropriations unchecked.

“If I were in the President’s position,” he said, “then I would replace the DBM [chief].”

He added that appointing new leadership in the DBM, one committed to transparency, would send a strong message that the administration is serious about reform.

Erice’s remarks followed earlier criticisms on the DBM from Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno, who accused the agency of negligence for failing to review redundant flood control allocations in the proposed 2026 DPWH budget.

Puno said he found it implausible that the DBM, the agency responsible for scrutinizing all departmental budgets before submitting the National Expenditure Program (NEP) to Congress, could have been unaware of the questionable items.

“You mean to say they can’t decide on their own to scrutinize something as obviously questionable as this? What are they? Stenographers?” Puno said in Filipino in September.

The Antipolo City representative has revealed that several flood control projects already completed, such as those in Marikina City, were still listed for funding in the NEP, while ongoing works like the Pasig-Marikina River Channel Improvement Project received zero allocation.

He also cited a P100-million project that appeared in the NEP under a new name, replacing the budget intended for the flood-prone Mayamot National High School in Antipolo.

“For me, even [DBM] should be reviewed because there’s no way all of this could happen without anyone knowing about it. They are responsible for releasing the budget,” Puno said.

Suspicious uniformity

He added that his own partymates in the National Unity Party raised similar concerns about “uniform” project amounts — ranging from P73 million to P93 million — appearing across multiple DPWH entries in the same NEP page.

Other lawmakers, including Rep. Terry Ridon, have also claimed that the dubious allocations originated not from congressional insertions but from the NEP itself — a document prepared and submitted by the DBM.

Deputy Speaker Janette Garin had echoed Puno’s suspicions, saying certain “insertions” may have been made even before the NEP reached Congress.

Puno disclosed that Rep. Marcos had approached him to discuss “dubious funding” for flood control projects in Ilocos Norte’s first district — the Marcos family’s political stronghold.

The NEP, worth P6.793 trillion for 2026, was submitted to the House on 13 August. Despite the controversy, the DPWH remains the second-highest recipient of funds after the education sector, with P881.3 billion in proposed allocations.

Senator Ping Lacson has urged Congress to adopt the NEP as is to prevent lawmakers from inserting or realigning funds, a practice often linked to “pork barrel”-style spending.

Lacson earlier flagged P147.283 billion in duplicated DPWH projects in the 2022 budget and later claimed that at least 67 House members had control over flood control project funds through contractors tied to their families.

In his last State of the Nation Address, President Marcos warned that he would veto any national budget that strays from the NEP, even if that meant operating under a reenacted budget.