The Senate investigated after Senator Sherwin Gatchalian revealed P271 billion red flags in the 2026 budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). According to Gatchalian, they found four problems: 4,566 road projects without station numbers (P200 billion worth), 40 duplicate projects, 42 projects divided into phases, and almost 9,613 reappearing projects that previously had funding in 2025.
Gatchalian said the most critical of these are the 946 projects that have reappeared worth P14 billion. Although he did not directly accuse the DPWH of corruption, he asserted that it is possible for district engineers to use their discretion to turn these into ghost projects.
DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon explained that they will ensure that duplicates, phased projects, and reappearing projects are removed after validation. While he admitted that there are still unfinished projects, he promised to clean up the list and provide complete details such as station numbers and exact locations.
Gatchalian added that if the budget cannot be fixed immediately, it would be better to postpone the deliberations. He stressed that it must be ensured that there are no duplicate, repetitive, or ghost projects that will result in the misuse of public funds.
