Batangas 1st District Representative Leandro Leviste claimed on Saturday, October 18, that several other officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) are allegedly connected with contractors, following the resignation of Undersecretary Arrey Perez, whom Leviste earlier accused of having ties with private builders.
Leviste issued the statement after Perez stepped down from his post, while the latter denounced what he called “malicious insinuations” against him. DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon earlier confirmed that the issue remains under investigation.
“People have asked if it’s true that I denied that Usec. Perez has links with contractors—I did not. What I said was: There are more members of Secretary Dizon’s team linked to contractors, and one in particular was photographed with contractors in a recent meeting in a restaurant. This one photographed was another member of Secretary Dizon’s team,” Leviste clarified.
Dizon has yet to issue a response to the latest allegations.
The Batangas lawmaker urged the DPWH chief to disclose all meetings and connections between department officials and contractors, emphasizing the need to ensure that “they do not get kickbacks.”
He also called for the publication of the DPWH budget allocation per legislative district, as promised during the September 17 budget hearing, along with the list of project proponents and proposals to reduce project costs by 25%.
“I only named Usec. Perez after Secretary Dizon asked me to give an example. My press briefing was to follow up on Secretary Dizon to lower the prices of DPWH projects and release information on the data per district in the 2026 budget, and I hope that Secretary Dizon can address this, because it is in changing the budget and not just the team that we can show that we are doing all that we can to end kickbacks in DPWH,” Leviste explained.
He added, “Given how many DPWH officials are connected with contractors, let us release the list of projects and remove all insertions by contractors in the DPWH budget.”
Secretary Dizon earlier vowed to remove and file charges against any DPWH official proven to have direct links to contractors.