Dy: House budget fully vetted; no secrets

Speaker Bojie Dy belied Wednesday reports that members of the House of Representatives, including himself, had “inserted” billions of pesos in the 2026 budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) under the spending outlay approved by the lower chamber, branding it “inaccurate and misleading.”

Dy issued the statement in response to a Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) report that said the DPWH allocation for Isabela’s 6th District — Dy’s bailiwick — ballooned from P1.1 billion to P3.8 billion after the House passed its version of the 2026 General Appropriations Bill in October.

An insertion of P2.7 billion pushed the allocation to more than triple the original amount earmarked for the Speaker’s district, making it the top recipient of the “insertions,” the report said.

Dy, however, did not directly reference the report, instead suggesting that the “insertions” were being penciled in during the bicameral process, even though the report clearly noted that they were observed in the House-approved budget.

“I just want to correct the circulating speculations. There is no insertion or secret addition of funds or provisions to the Bicameral Conference Committee,” Dy said in Filipino. “The truth is there is nothing illegal, nothing secret, and nothing deceptive going on on our side.”

Traditionally, after the House passes the GAB, it is transmitted to the Senate for further scrutiny.

The Senate will pass its version of the national budget, after which the Bicameral Conference Committee — comprising selected members of both the House and Senate — will convene to reconcile the differing provisions of the two GAB versions.

‘False, misrepresented’

Dy took up the cudgels for his colleagues and slammed reports suggesting that they were secretly adding funds or provisions in the bicameral process, asserting that all items in the House-approved GAB did not bypass any procedural process and were thoroughly vetted by all of its members before the bicam even began.

The House leader pointed out that the sole objective of the bicam is limited to reconciling the versions passed separately by the House and the Senate, “not to introduce new items or to sneak in something that was not agreed upon.”

He further argued that the House did nothing “irregular” in its budget version, emphasizing that the chamber maintained transparency by conducting the process openly, in a bid to restore public trust in a Congress long tainted by corruption concerns.

Based on the PCIJ’s matrix released over the weekend, House committee on appropriations chair Mikaela Suansing’s district in Nueva Ecija ranked second in terms of insertions in the DPWH’s budget for next year.

The report revealed that from the DPWH’s original allotment for Nueva Ecija’s 1st District amounting to P1.6 billion there was an “insertion” of P1.8 billion that pushed the funding to P3.4 billion in the House version of the GAB.

Similarly, Sultan Kudarat’s 2nd District, the turf of Suansing’s sister, Bella, obtained P3.9 billion after an alleged insertion of P1.6 billion. Her district placed third for having the highest amount of “insertions.”

These amounts, however, are still subject to the approval of the bicam members, who were locked in a standoff over whether to restore P45 billion in DPWH funding that the Senate cut in its version of the GAB.

According to Senate finance panel chair Win Gatchalian, the DPWH is likely to face another budget cut in the bicameral deliberations following the public backlash over the multi-billion-peso flood control scandal.

To recall, the DPWH’s allocation for 2026 was initially pegged at P881.3 billion, but the House slashed P255 billion worth of locally funded flood control projects and realigned it to other crucial programs, such as education, health, and agriculture, leaving the department with only P625.7 billion.

The budget, however, was further trimmed to P568 billion in the GAB passed by the Senate.

Members of the bicam have the final say on which versions of the DPWH funding shall be passed. The Senate bicam contingent could compromise with the House, though they could also reach a consensus to make additional slashes in the House’s version of the DPWH budget.