MANILA, Philippines — The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) has officially terminated a financing initiative established during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte under the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure campaign, following a state audit revealing that ₱4.09 billion in outstanding loans had become overdue due to weak safeguards and collection challenges.
According to the Commission on Audit (COA), 61.4% of the ₱6.67 billion in total outstanding loans under the Infrastructure Contractor Support (ICONS) program were past due as of December 2025.
Prompted by the high volume of delinquent accounts, the DBP board voted to scrap the program on June 3, 2026, as detailed in the bank’s 2025 audit report.
Initiated in 2017, the ICONS program aimed to assist Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board-licensed contractors in funding infrastructure projects through projected payouts from state contracts and public-private partnerships. Although the bank approved ₱106.78 billion across 536 loan accounts throughout its run, prolonged payment defaults and poor recovery rates left the state lender struggling to reclaim billions.
Geographically, Mindanao recorded the highest share of outstanding ICONS loans at ₱3.58 billion, followed by Luzon with ₱1.75 billion, the Visayas with ₱1.27 billion, and multi-regional projects accounting for the remaining ₱620 million.
Troubles within the program had emerged years prior to its cancellation. COA noted that the DBP board mandated an inquiry into the bank’s 20 largest nonperforming loans as early as January 19, 2022, which included a flagged ICONS account. Operating units were instructed to pinpoint accountability and report their findings, but persistent defaults eventually forced the bank to pull the plug over four years later.
During its review, COA inspected seven borrowers holding a collective ₱1.18 billion in overdue ICONS debts, uncovering flaws in collateral execution, disbursement protocols, and collection measures.
In one instance, a corporate borrower secured a ₱300-million credit line backed by expected receivables from five state-owned corporation projects. The account lapsed into default in June 2020, yet DBP failed to recover any principal over five years later, leading the bank to fully provision for the loss. Investigations revealed that four of the targeted projects had been canceled, while the fifth was fully paid off in December 2021 without leaving residual funds for the bank. Auditors also found that DBP disbursed the loan proceeds without following its own mandate for progress-based staggered releases.
In another case, a contractor defaulted on a ₱490.46-million loan in July 2020. Even though the underlying projects were completed, the contractor had subcontracted significant portions of the work, reducing its actual economic interest to just 3.5% of total project expenses. DBP has likewise fully provided for this troubled account.