21/10/2025
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Headlines
22 of 1,700 target classrooms completed
By Nidz Godino
“It’s October, secretary…even just saying it, sumasakit po ‘yung puso kong only 22 classrooms were built…if we continue at this rate, our 146,000-classroom backlog will balloon to 200,000 by 2028,” Sen. Bam Aquino said only 22 classrooms have been built this year by Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) out of 1,700 targeted for completion, DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon disclosed.
At hearing of Senate finance committee on DPWH budget, Dizon said 882 classroom projects are ongoing while 882 more have “not yet even started,” translating to “very deplorable” performance rate of 15.43 percent.
Aquino expressed frustration that despite previous priority in infrastructure spending, education facilities have remained neglected.
Aquino also cited need to shift classroom-building responsibilities from DPWH to local governments.
“What we intend to do is remove this from DPWH because you’re busy and you need to do other things…funds should be given directly to LGUs for building of classrooms,” Aquino said, referring to proposed Classroom Acceleration Bill.
“We are in full support of this measure, especially now , 22 have been built this year…we really need help,” Dizon said in response.
“We also need aggressive PPP ,public-private partnership so we can build fast because at this rate, it’s virtually impossible for DPWH to meet classroom targets,” he added.
Aquino said Education Secretary Sonny Angara was also in favor of the proposal to directly download funds to LGUs, while also tapping NGOs and private groups with good track record in school building to address classroom shortages in isolated areas.
Angara said “DepEd really wants to implement what we call ‘flexibility’ provision in General Appropriations Act and in the bill of Sen. Bam Aquino, that classroom construction should not solely be done by DPWH.”
Finance committee chairman Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said DPWH may lose more than half of its P625-billion proposed budget due to thousands of “red-flagged” infrastructure projects worth P271 billion and some P70 billion worth of projects for 2026 found overpriced by over 1,000 percent based on independent review by engineers.
“Potential cut is P348 billion. ..it’s not yet final but it’s our estimates at the moment,” he told reporters.
Gatchalian said committee reviewed updated list of projects submitted by DPWH for House-approved General Appropriations Bill, and found 6,817 items with transparency and accountability issues.
For one, Gatchalian flagged 4,566 road projects worth P201 million that had no station numbers or coordinates, making it impossible to verify their location or length.
He also raised red flags over 40 duplicated projects worth over P1 billion, citing multi-purpose building in Muntinlupa City that required P40 million for construction and rehabilitation in the same year. “So there was construction and rehabilitation of the same building in the same year… I find this preposterous,” he said.
DPWH had earlier resubmitted 14,670 projects worth P566 billion through errata to House of Representatives.
Dizon admitted issues raised by the Senate were valid and vowed to conduct full validation.
“I will instruct our implementing units to validate and indicate station number,” Dizon said.
On duplicated and phased projects, Dizon said DPWH has already started cleaning up list and told chamber to just delete duplicates from 2026 budget of the department.
Gatchalian said DPWH must submit missing project details by Monday next week, before committee begins reconciling the budget. Committee suspended hearing yesterday after more than eight hours.
Also at yesterday’s hearing, Sen. Loren Legarda said across-the-board budget cuts being considered by senators on all DPWH infrastructure projects are now as high as 30 percent as chamber seeks to block “systemic overpricing” from recurring in 2026 budget.
Legarda said discussions among colleagues have yielded looming 25 to 30 percent reduction in all DPWH line items, previously only set at 15 to 20 percent.
Legarda said “temporary corrective measure” was agreed upon factoring in findings of inflated costs in agency’s previous projects.
“In light of systemic overpricing revealed by recent corruption scandals, would the good secretary and his new team consider it reasonable and technically sound to implement across-the-board reduction… because previous officials have admitted that there are even 50 percent overpriced,” Legarda asked Dizon.
“How can we, in conscience, affix our signatures for overpriced budget?” she added.
Dizon acknowledged existence of overpricing in various regions, saying his team is conducting regional review of material costs and project valuations.
“Clearly, there is overpricing. In our initial studies, there are projects overpriced above 20 percent… some even beyond 30 percent in certain regions,” he added.
Dizon said DPWH would not wait until 2027 to correct pricing distortions, saying it would block any attempts to overprice ongoing projects and those slated for next year.
He said DPWH will cut cost of materials for projects in regions found to have overpriced them, saying steel and cement were overpriced in various amounts per region, ranging from less than 20 percent to more than 30 percent.
He said DPWH would be releasing recommendation in the next weeks based on its assessment on cost of materials.
“This must be applied immediately, especially for those projects still under procurement,” Dizon said.
Aquino voiced support for Legarda’s proposal, saying chamber has discussed 20 to 25 percent cut in DPWH’s budget if it fails to justify or redesign its project costs in time for plenary deliberations.
“If there are substandard, overdesigned, or overpriced projects, we cannot in good conscience sign that budget, let’s take out the fat,” he said.
Sen. JV Ejercito, meanwhile, suggested reallocating part of P250 billion flood control fund to large-scale projects aligned with government’s Central Luzon Floodway master plan, which Asian Development Bank expects to complete by August 2026.
Ejercito said P250 billion should be channeled toward “big ticket items” like floodways, dams, water impounding mechanisms and spillways. Amount represented allocation for flood control President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.ordered taken out of original P881 billion proposed budget for next year and transferred to other agencies.
“I understand the President said that P250 billion of flood control projects not until you have already established reforms will be reallocated, reapportioned to other projects like social welfare programs… and PhilHealth,but I think it might be good opportunity for us because we cannot let next two or three years that people will continue to drown because there are no flood control projects , they will suffer in the next two to three years again,” Ejercito said.
Dizon agreed, saying future flood control projects must strictly adhere to plan to avoid “wasteful and anomalous” spending.
Earlier yesterday, Dizon announced his appointment of DPWH Bureau of Designs director Lara Marisse Inguito-Esquibil as OIC of National Building Code Development Office and Operations for External Convergence Programs to replace Arrey Perez who abruptly resigned.
In an address after flag raising ceremonies at DPWH central office in Manila, Dizon also intends to draw from ranks to fill almost 2,000 vacant plantilla positions at DPWH.
“Our priority to fill these different positions are from those within DPWH… I want to promote and raise first from ranks deserving, honest, and hardworking people already in the DPWH including job order contractual employees,” Dizon said.
Dizon also said Esquibil was product of Cadet Engineering Program started in 2013 during the time of then DPWH secretary Rogelio Singson, but has since been discontinued.
“I learned just this morning, that she was in the first batch of Cadet Engineering Program,” Dizon said of Esquibil.
Meanwhile, Malacañang brushed aside Gatchalian’s proposal to abolish DPWH amid allegations of rampant corruption in agency.
“Not all government officials in DPWH have committed wrongdoings…there are still public servants who we can say are responding to their obligations, right now, we haven’t thought about whether it should be abolished because what we need to do is to rid agency of erring personnel,” Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said at briefing.
