P1.5 billion in Wawao deals came from unprogrammed funds — senator
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian branded unprogrammed funds as a new source of pork after finding that a contractor tagged in ghost projects was awarded deals worth P1.5 billion.
From 2023 to 2024, Wawao Builders was awarded several projects in Bulacan. The construction firm has since been linked to one of the ghost projects uncovered in the province.
Gatchalian noted that funding for some of Wawao’s contracts did not appear as line items in the 2023 and 2024 national budgets.
Instead, the money came from unprogrammed funds—budget items that do not yet have dedicated funding and can only be accessed once specific fiscal triggers are met.
In 2023, Wawao was awarded 18 flood control projects worth P1.12 billion, when the expected cost per project was a mere P66.64 million
These Bulacan projects were named by former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) engineer Brice Hernandez as the budget insertions allegedly made by Sen. Joel Villanueva as part of a kickback scheme.
The following year, Wawao got four projects funded from the unprogrammed funds amounting to P324.07 million, with the average cost per project that year being P81.01 million.
Gatchalian, who is the Senate Committee on Finance chair, slammed the use of unprogrammed funds, as it was being used in projects that were not being vetted well.
“I wanted to propose to our colleagues that we should remove the unprogrammed,” Gatchalian said in Thursday's Blue Ribbon Committee hearing.
Unprogrammed funds under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration have continuously ballooned.
Since 2022, lawmakers have repeatedly reallocated several items into unprogrammed funds, including major flagship projects such as the Metro Manila Subway Project. In 2025, Congress ballooned the unprogrammed funds from a proposed P158.67 billion to a whopping P531.67 billion.
In the 2026 proposed budget, the executive branch is eyeing a total of P249 billion.
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