Leandro Leviste on Sunday continued releasing documents related to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) budget, uploading screenshots of email exchanges between his office and the agency to support his claims about undisclosed allocations.
In a Facebook post, Leviste said he deliberately gave the DPWH time to respond to the documents he made public.
“I gave a few days for the DPWH to ‘authenticate’ the documents that I uploaded on Facebook—as a test if they will lie, hide something, or admit the truth. And to see if they really don’t want the files published.”
In an earlier interview with GMA Integrated News, Vince Dizon said he could not authenticate the documents cited by Leviste.
“For the record, I have not authenticated any document in the possession of Cong. [Leviste], because I have yet to see the documents he was talking about. So how can I authenticate them?” Dizon said.
Leviste disputed the claim, saying the files were already publicly available.
“I hope we don’t stop him from revealing the truth. I have a Facebook post. I don’t understand why he still says he hasn’t seen anything, when the whole Philippines can already see it on my Facebook,” Leviste said in a radio interview.
Based on the screenshots shared by Leviste, he sent an email to Dizon on 1 October following up on his request for a breakdown of DPWH budget allocations per legislative district under the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP).
On 20 October, Leviste said he received a reply allegedly from the DPWH Planning Service stating that “as per instruction of Sec. Vince Dizon,” the agency was transmitting two summaries of DPWH allocations for fiscal year 2026 — one based on the revised NEP and another on the House General Appropriations Bill.
Hours after posting the screenshots, Leviste said in an interview on DZBB Super Radyo that he could not understand why DPWH had not released the same data to the public.
“It’s not about my files, it’s about the fact that the DPWH has files. Why haven’t they responded to the public’s call to make all DPWH project data public?” Leviste said.
Leviste said the issue was not merely the size of the budget but the lack of transparency over project proponents.
“It is not enough to say that if you have a P10 billion budget means there is corruption, but this could help the investigation of the Ombudsman and ICI (Independent Commission for Infrastructure) especially if they learn who are the proponents of ghost and substandard projects,” he said.
According to Leviste, the list of “allocable” DPWH projects per congressional district amounts to P401.3 billion. He added that additional “outside allocable” items — stemming from amendments and alleged insertions by House and Senate lawmakers — expand the total DPWH budget to P1.041 trillion.
“In terms of ano ‘yung irregular dito sa tingin ko ang irregular is the fact na tinatago, kasi kung walang masama? Bakit hindi nalang natin ipinagmamalaki na may P10 bilyong pisong pondo ang ilang mga proponents,” Leviste said.
The lawmaker urged DPWH to release its own copy of the files and confirm the amounts allocated per congressman, saying he had previously attempted to raise the issue through a privilege speech in the House but was discouraged by some colleagues.
“They should confirm whether this is really the amount allocated to the congressmen. Many of my colleagues in Congress pleaded with me and stopped me from delivering a privilege speech on this matter,” he said.
Leviste became emotional during the interview as he noted that the list includes names of officials close to his family, including acquaintances of his mother, Loren Legarda. Still, he said he wants full accounting of DPWH funds since 2023.
“Everyone on the list doesn’t want their names to be revealed, and (others are) friends of my mother but I really want to know where the P3.5 trillion of DPWH were spent,” Leviste said.
“It’s also sad that instead of releasing it, it seems like they are even covering it up. So I hope that DPWH and Sec. Dizon will release it instead of me,” he added.
Leviste said he has retained copies of the files to verify whether any names are removed should an official list be released.