EDITORIAL - DPWH red flags

With the flood control mess still unresolved and the near-freeze in public construction pulling down gross domestic product, you’d think the Department of Public Works and Highways would streamline its presentation of projects for funding in 2027.

But on Oct. 5, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said an extensive assessment carried out by his office showed that 7,107 infrastructure projects proposed by the DPWH for 2027 had red flags.

The 7,107, with project costs amounting to P251.81 billion, constituted 62 percent of the 11,395 locally funded DPWH projects evaluated, whose total proposed budget is P455.17 billion.

Among the issues flagged were missing station numbers or bridge IDs specifying the project location as well as geographical coordinates to facilitate verification. There were duplicate project entries, some reportedly with only slight differences in spelling. There were lump-sum projects lacking a detailed breakdown of their components, and others classified as overlapping or fragmented.

Gatchalian also flagged 258 recurring projects that appeared in both the 2026 General Appropriations Act and the proposed GAA for 2027, as well as projects without specific construction details and involving contradictory construction and rehabilitation works.

DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon vowed to review the flagged items and file charges against the district engineers who signed the certificates of project implementability, if anomalies are established. He explained that many of the missing details were merely omitted from project titles but were contained in supporting documents.

The chair of the House committee on appropriations, Rep. Mikaela Suansing, said the chamber accepted assurances of the DPWH and the Department of Budget and Management that the projects and funding proposals had been properly vetted.

Dizon took over the DPWH as the flood control scandal forced the resignation of his predecessor Manuel Bonoan. President Marcos tasked Dizon to clean up the mess.

Even in the previous administration, Rodrigo Duterte was already lamenting widespread corruption in the DPWH, calling it one of the most rotten agencies. Duterte had cited ghost DPWH projects, crooked engineers and bribery by contractors to secure projects.

It was President Marcos, however, who finally did something about the corruption, which is linked to budgeting anomalies.

While public impatience is rising over the probes, the scandal has at least encouraged closer scrutiny of the budgeting process and public works projects.

Red flags – especially those carried out by offices with the capability to conduct exhaustive reviews – must not be ignored.