Malacañang on Monday said that the abolition of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is not being considered at this time, noting that many officials in the department continue to perform their duties properly.
Palace press officer Claire Castro made the statement in response to Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian’s suggestion to dissolve the agency and create a new one amid the serious corruption issues that have plagued the agency.
‘First of all, in the department, not all administrators or government employees in the DPWH can be said to have made mistakes. There are still public servants and public officials who fulfill their duties,’ Castro said in Filipino.
She also said, ‘At present, there are no plans to abolish it because what should be removed are those who are doing wrong. It’s easy to identify who they are, and with the help of Secretary Vince, those who need to be removed from the agency will be removed.’
Gatchalian floated the idea of abolishing the DPWH during a forum last Thursday, saying that if something can no longer be fixed, then it might be better to build a new one.
‘If you’re going to ask me. Because I think it will take years and years for Secretary Vince to clean up. We need to do many things-digitalization, of course, file cases to everyone involved, and we also need to check the others if they are doing what is right,’ he said during a Kapihan sa Senado forum.
On Sept. 21, tens of thousands of people staged protests in various parts of Metro Manila-coinciding with the anniversary of the declaration of martial law under then-President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in Sept. 1972.
The demonstrations focused on condemning the irregularities in flood-control projects and called for accountability for the personalities involved in the developing controversies.