Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Vince Dizon said Wednesday that their department has taken steps to improve how budget allocations for infrastructure projects were dispersed throughout the various regions of the country.

In his opening statement for deliberations into the proposed budget of the DPWH for 2027, Dizon presented data from the past 10 years wherein Luzon received 56 percent of project allocations while Mindanao and Visayas was provided 27 and 17 percent, respectively.

For succeeding budgets, however, the Public Works secretary mentioned that it was their goal to ensure that all projects of each region were properly funded on a “needs” basis.

“What we tried to do, we wanted to make this more needs-based…we tried our best to really make the budget for 2027 more equitable,” he told lawmakers of the House appropriations committee.

Under the 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP), Luzon received an allocation of P258.49 billion translating to 52.65 percent of the total proposed budget that was placed at P643.95 billion.

Mindanao, on the other hand, was provided a 27.55 percent share of the amount at P138.56 billion while Visayas still ranked as the region with the lowest appropriation with P93.92 billion.

Despite the changes, Dizon admitted that ensuring that the budget was more equitable for all regions would take “several years of correcting” particularly when it came to identifying the areas that required an increased budget.

“This we feel is a good start, but personally this is still not enough and we will leave it again up to the wisdom of Congress if you feel that we need to reallocate some more in order to really address the needs especially of regions and provinces and areas that need it the most,” he said.

Cutting down projects

Earlier in his presentation, Dizon mentioned that the DPWH was attempting to cut down on its total number of projects that were included in the budget of the department.

For 2027, the DPWH proposed funding for 11,395–the lowest mark under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. which averaged above 20,000 projects from 2023 to 2025.

Dizon explained that one of the factors in the decrease of proposals was their move to prioritize “big-ticket” projects while simultaneously bringing down projects that cost P5 million and below.

Another consideration for the DPWH that Dizon mentioned in terms of limiting its project allocations was a strict mandate that all projects included in the NEP were those with proper documentation and within the respective plans of every district.

He explained that the insufficient planning had led to the project count of the department which ballooned to more than 25,000 in 2024 and 2025.

“This is not a perfect budget…but we are trying our best to fix the problems that we have seen in the past. It will require several years of reforms for us to be rest assured that old issues will not arise,” he said.

With current and future planning, Dizon expressed that they would closely coordinate with local government units and other concerned agencies to identify which projects could answer each communities needs.