Tinio: Scrapped DPWH ‘BBM formula’ was blueprint for grand corruption

Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio on Wednesday said the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) so-called “Basedlined-Balanced-Managed” (BBM) formula is at the core of what he described as a “systematic, top-down scheme of plunder institutionalized at the very start of the Marcos Jr. administration.”

Earlier, DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon announced that the agency would scrap the parametric formula in preparing the budget for fiscal year 2027. Tinio, however, said the formula should not simply be abandoned and forgotten, but instead “consigned to the dustbin” through full public scrutiny.

According to the lawmaker, the DPWH “allocable system” and its BBM formula—attributed to the late undersecretary Maria Catalina Cablay—serve as a blueprint for alleged centralized corruption that he said implicates President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., his Cabinet, and leaders of both the House and Senate as primary proponents and beneficiaries of supposed pork barrel insertions.

Tinio noted that the formula was used by the DPWH in crafting its proposed budgets from 2023 up to the recently enacted 2026 General Appropriations Act, which the administration had branded as a “corruption-free” budget.

Citing the “Managed” section on page 6 of the document, Tinio said the language used amounted to a “smoking gun,” particularly its assertion that beyond economic, political, and legal considerations, the national budget should also take into account the “priorities of leaders of the national government and the legislature.”

“The language used is a telling giveaway. It explicitly names ‘priorities of the leaders’ instead of ‘priorities of the administration’—meaning individual officials, not institutional mandates. This is an official admission that the budget is adjusted to serve the personal priorities of powerful individuals,” Tinio said.

“And who are these individuals? The DPWH policy document all but names them: ‘leaders of the national government and the legislature’ can only refer to none other than the President and his cabinet and the leadership of both chambers of Congress,” he added.

According to Tinio, the formula is “pork barrel” by design, as it openly acknowledges what he called the “big fish.” He noted that the formula was issued in July 2022 under the Office of the Secretary of DPWH, then headed by Secretary Manuel Bonoan.

“Formula embeds the pork barrel system in official DPWH policy at the very start of the Marcos Jr. administration and ushers in the period of unprecedented plunder of DPWH funds we now call the ‘flood control scam,’” Tinio said.

“The bombshell revelations by whistleblowers such as DPWH Usec. Roberto Bernardo and Bulacan District Engineer Henry Alcantara as well as those found in the so-called ‘Cabral files,’ should therefore be seen in this light,” he added.

Tinio further said the BBM parametric formula confirms what he described as the evolution of corruption within the DPWH into a “centralized, syndicated, and more efficient system of plunder.”

He also cited claims by key players within the DPWH that only Undersecretary Cabral fully understood the formula, arguing that this was part of a deliberate strategy by both the Palace and the agency to distance top officials from alleged wrongdoing.

“Instead of sweeping it under the rug, the DPWH must officially acknowledge this document as its policy from 2023 to 2026, for which Secretary Bonoan and the Office of the President are ultimately responsible,” Tinio said.

“The BBM Parametric Formula is the blueprint for grand corruption. It institutionalized kickbacks at the highest levels. Therefore, the investigation must not stop with mid-level officials or contractors. It must follow the document’s own logic and follow the trail upwards to the ‘big fish’ it has named,” he urged.