A small province receiving larger infrastructure allocations than others puzzled Sen. Loren Legarda.
At Monday’s hearing of the Senate finance subcommittee, Legarda inquired how the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) distributes the proposed 2026 budget for infrastructure projects among legislative districts.
‘Because there’s this one province – I don’t want to name it since I also know the congressman – it’s a very small province, yet it has a huge budget in the NEP [National Expenditure Program],’ she said speaking in Filipino.
‘I repeat, we are not judging anyone. We’re not imputing motives, but there is a province much smaller than Antique with more than double the budget in the NEP – and it even increased further in the GAB [General Appropriations Bill],’ the senator added.
The NEP is Malacañang’s budget proposal, while the GAB is the approved budget bill in the House of Representatives.
According to Legarda, her hometown province of Antique should have been given a P3.6 billion budget next year based on landmass and population alone, but it was only allotted P1.1 billion.
Valenzuela City, on the other hand, was previously given huge allocations, according to Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate finance committee.
‘They did not even know where the budgets came from. It just appeared there. His brother, who was mayor, didn’t even know,’ Legarda said.
She later pressed the DPWH on how it computes the budgets for infrastructure projects.
Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon, who was just appointed to head the agency last month, admitted they are still clueless about how funding for infrastructure projects was decided.
‘Up to now, we still don’t understand how the 2026 budget was allocated among the legislative districts,’ Dizon said.
There is supposed to be a ‘parametric formula’ that considers land area, population, and other factors, but a random check revealed it was not being followed, he said.
‘So clearly there is something wrong with that formula,’ the DPWH chief added.
Dizon nevertheless promised that for 2027, they would come up with a new formula, which he described as ‘simpler, more straightforward, and responsive to the needs of the community.’