A STAGGERING P268 billion, or almost a third of the entire P875 billion proposed 2026 budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), is allocated for flood control projects, a figure that newly appointed Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon has vowed to slash.

“I was stunned by this [DPWH] budget,” Dizon said in a radio interview Monday. “The flood control budget alone is P268 billion. That’s already one-third of the entire budget of the DPWH.”

Dizon said the size of the flood control funds was one of the things that popped during an item-by-item review of the DPWH 2026 budget, which was ordered in the wake of revelations of billions of pesos worth of ghost and substandard projects.

Dizon said the amount is unacceptable and vowed to slash a sizable amount from flood mitigation projects and allocate it to other priority items like roads, but without sacrificing the areas that really need flood control projects.

“I agree with the proposal... to slash the flood control budget. We will do it, but I cannot say, for now, the final amount,” he said.

On the implementation of flood control programs in needed areas, Dizon said he agreed with the proposal of Nueva Ecija Rep. Mika Suansing, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, to use science and technology through Project Noah, the exact location of flood-prone areas.

“Flood control priority will be on areas tagged as red zones or the areas most prone to flooding based on Project Noah. We will focus on that while we are still cleansing the budget of the DPWH. I agree with that,” Dizon said.

Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazard), the country’s primary disaster risk reduction and management program, is being managed by the University of the Philippines.

The time-by-item review of the 2026 DPWH budget is being done by Dizon and Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman on orders of the President to prevent a repeat of the irregularities that happened during the past three years of his administration.

Some P550 billion has been allocated to flood control projects from 2022-2025 or during the first three years of the Marcos administration., This news data comes from:http://ohg.gangzhifhm.com

Many of said projects were funded by congressional insertions, meaning that they were not really part of the original National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by Malacañang to Congress but suddenly appeared as part of the national budget after the deliberations of the Senate-House Bicameral Conference Committee.

Initial scrutiny of the 2026 DPWH budget, as pointed out earlier by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, pointed to six red flags, namely: flood-control and river wall projects without station numbers that make them nearly impossible to locate; duplicate projects; contracts divided into phases despite being one project; costs with rounded-off amounts; entries with questionable code names; and projects that appear in the 2026 NEP even though they were already funded in 2025.

DPWH Secretary Dizon vows to slash 'staggering' P268B flood control budget

Based on records, according to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, double appropriations with the DPWH’s budget amounted to P2.77 billion in 2023, P3.48 billion in 2024, and P7.85 billion in 2025.

During the first three years of the Marcos administration, according to the DPWH-Sumbong sa Pangulo report, Sunwest, Inc., owned by Ako Bicol Party-list Rizaldy Co, topped the list in terms of value of projects at P10,147,835,285.70 out of 79 projects; followed by Legacy Construction Corp. with 133 projects worth P9,558,821,107.67; EGB Construction Corp., P7,789,080,188.90 (95 projects); QM Builders, P7,674,023,245.78 (96 projects);

Alpha & Omega General Contractor & Development Corp. P7,489,133,751.70; St. Timothy Construction Corp., P7,324,820,807.62 (105 projects); Topnotch Catalyst Builders Inc, P5,998,705,617.57 (88 projects); Royal Crown Monarch, P5,794,777,137.84 (60 projects); Equi-Parco Construction Co., P5,771,438,121.31 (37 projects); Centerways Construction and Development Inc., P5,444,745,973.18 (87 projects); MG Samidan Construction, P5,258,979,677.17 (60 projects);

L. R. Tiqui Builders, Inc., P5,225,681,315.28 (59 projects); Hi-Tone Construction & Development Corp., P4,856,993,286.23 (61 projects); Road Edge Trading & Development, P4,628,050,538.92 (59 projects); and Eight J’s Construction Services, P4,510,068,719.40 (50 projects).