Over six thousand ‘red flag’ projects amounting to P271 billion are still hounding the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) 2026 budget at present, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian revealed on Monday.
Gatchalian, chairperson of the chamber’s panel on finance, made the revelation at a Senate subpanel’s hearing on the proposed funding of the DPWH for next year.
According to Gatchalian, there are 6,187 ‘red flag’ projects in the DPWH budget, and their overall cost amounts to P271 billion.
‘My first instinct is to defer the DPWH’s budget for now so that it can be cleaned up. Because if we don’t fix this, it will just happen again in 2026,’ said Gatchalian.
But Gatchalian noted that the Senate could also decide to thoroughly remove the P271 billion funding to the DPWH’s P625.78 billion funding for next year should the agency fail to submit and explain the existence of such red-flag projects.
‘Regarding Red Flag One, submit to us the exact station number of each project. Exact – if there’s a technical description, submit that too for all 4,566 projects. For Red Flags Two and Three, we will remove the duplicates. For Red Flag Four, submit the technical description to show whether it’s a continuation project and if such exists,’ said Gatchalian.
‘But if you can’t submit it, we’ll also remove Red Flag Four – because at first glance, it seems like it’s already completed by 2025, so why are we adding more in 2026? So we expect the submission for Red Flag One as soon as possible because the project is already ongoing. But if you can’t submit Red Flags One and Four, we will remove P271 billion worth of projects,’ he added.
Gatchalian identified the following red flags in DPWH existing projects:
Red flag No. 1: No Station Number
Red flag No. 2: Duplicates
Red flag No. 3: Multiple Phases
Red flag No. 4: Reappearing projects
Meanwhile, DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon agreed to Gatchalian’s terms, agreeing that the DPWH’s P271 billion worth of projects will be removed should they fail to submit the documents asked by the panel.
‘Yes, that is very clear,’ he told Gatchalian.
The DPWH’s budget for 2026 amounts to P625.7 billion. The agency slashed P252.53 billion in its funding for next year, allocating zero budget to locally funded flood control projects.
Dizon said the revised budget is P255 billion lower than their original proposed funding.