The Senate on Monday flagged more than 6,000 infrastructure projects worth P271 billion in the proposed 2026 budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), citing possible duplications and lack of clarity in project details.
During the budget deliberations on Monday, Senator Win Gatchalian said the Senate finance subcommittee identified a total of 6,187 “red flag” projects requiring further scrutiny.
“We requested the department to indicate the station numbers so we can see where they are located, the length of each project, and to ensure they are not duplicates,” Gatchalian said.
“In fairness to the department, the reappearing projects might be continuations since many project names were generic,” he added.
In response, Public Works and Highways Secretary Vivencio Dizon explained that the 2026 budget was prepared under his predecessor.
He said his team had identified 946 duplicate projects, including some with identical names that were listed in the 2025 budget and totaled P14.455 billion.
As of 26 October, Dizon said the DPWH had validated 798 projects nationwide, mostly road and bridge constructions or rehabilitation, with a total value of P11.655 billion.
The validation process would confirm if these projects were legitimate continuations or redundant entries.
Meanwhile, Senator Erwin Tulfo criticized the widespread practice of reblocking roads that are still in good condition, saying it leads to duplication and waste of government funds.
At the hearing, Tulfo reiterated his call for a stricter audit of infrastructure projects to prevent irregular reblocking works in the future.
“Have you already established controls to ensure this won’t happen again, particularly through the Commission on Audit’s regional or district offices for proper reporting?” he asked.
In response, Dizon said that alongside the ongoing post-audit, the agency is also conducting a pre-audit of all infrastructure projects as part of its reform measures.
Gatchalian, for his part, emphasized that providing detailed technical descriptions in infrastructure projects would help prevent duplication of line items in the budget.