The Department of Transportation (DOTr) received a P163.11 billion increase for its total budget under the 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP), marking its highest proposal under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

For the coming year, the DOTr was earmarked P300.96 billion after receiving less than half of the total amount it was allocated in the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA) which was P137.84 billion.

In its breakdown, a major portion of the budget amounting to nearly P252 billion was provided to the Office of the Secretary (OSEC) and its attached agencies including the Land Transportation Office, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, Light Rail Transit Authority, and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.

The Philippine Coast Guard ranked below OSEC with P45.51 billion while the Office for Transportation Secretary received P1.67 and the Maritime Industry Authority was allocated P1.46 billion.

As for the actual distribution of the proposed budget to the programs and services, P243.93 billion was placed for Capital Outlays which mainly consisted of Foreign-Assisted Projects intended for various transportation sectors nationwide.

Projects without allocations, budget cuts

Even with the larger amount, the transportation agency noted that the proposed budget was far below the department’s total proposal of P624.48 billion meant for a continuation and funding for the proposed projects.

Of the 179 projects that were proposed by the DOTr, just 30 projects were funded through the NEP spread through the railways, road transport, aviation, maritime, and other forms of infrastructure.

Among the projects that did not receive funding were the Mindanao Railway Project, Metro Rail Transit-Line 4 project, the Philippine National Railway South Long Haul Project, and other rehabilitation initiatives.

A particular program under the department that received no funding as pointed out by Akbayan Partylist Rep. Perci Cendana was part of the EDSA Busway Service Contracting and Fuel Subsidy program.

Cendana highlighted that the budget was fully utilized in 2026, particularly when the fuel crisis increased the ridership of EDSA Carousel.

Faced with the query, Transportation Secretary Giovanni Lopez said that it was an issue that they would defer to Congress to provide them with the budget, noting that the legislative’s foresight assisted them in dealing with the nationwide issue on fuel.

“Last year, there was also no budget for service contracting for the EDSA Carousel under the NEP but Congress took the initiative to give us funding for this program. And with the oil crisis, with your foresight, we were able to use service contracting,” Lopez explained.

The DOTr chief noted that there may be numerous reasons why such projects were not funded, particularly the limited fiscal space in the budget.

Even with such reservations, Lopez said that he supported Cendana’s call to fund the program that served nearly 60 million commuters based on data from 2024 and 2025.

“I hope that Congress through this committee will not take this budget cut lightly and act to firmly restore the EDSA Carousel budget,” the lawmaker said.