The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Senate Senior Majority Leader JV Ejercito have agreed to remove all infrastructure projects lacking complete documentary requirements from the proposed 2027 national budget.
Ejercito, who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance, reached the agreement during a meeting on Friday, October 30, with newly appointed Public Works Secretary Giovanni Lopez and former public works chief Vince Dizon.
The officials convened to address concerns surrounding the proposed ₱7.2-trillion national budget for next year and to ensure ongoing reforms in project evaluation and approval at the DPWH continue.
“We need to boost our infrastructure spending, but not at the expense of the reforms we want to be instituted. Every delayed project has an economic cost,” Ejercito said.
“And every anomalous, poorly vetted project costs us even more: it wastes taxpayers’ money, deprives endangered communities of safety, and erodes public trust,” he added.
Following the discussion, Ejercito issued a formal letter to Lopez setting a November 3, 2026 deadline for the DPWH to submit complete documentation and justifications for 6,271 newly introduced infrastructure projects found in the House of Representatives’ version of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB).
Projects failing to meet this deadline will be dropped from the budget prior to plenary deliberations.
A comparative review by the Senate finance panel revealed that total DPWH infrastructure projects surged from 11,420 under the National Expenditure Program (NEP) to 16,244 in the GAB, with 6,271 new entries absent from the initial NEP.
During DPWH budget briefings in September, Ejercito flagged 155 flood control projects valued at ₱8.2 billion for missing key documents such as Certificates of Implementability, Programs of Works (POW), and geotagged photos. These evaluation standards were established under Dizon’s leadership during the drafting of the 2027 NEP.
In his letter, Ejercito urged the new DPWH leadership to uphold these rigorous vetting protocols.
“Under the leadership of Secretary Vince Dizon, the DPWH committed that it will ensure that all infrastructure projects proposed for funding comply with the agency’s documentary requirements,” the senator noted.
“We must continue to ensure that public funds are allocated to projects that are properly justified, implementation-ready, and responsive to the needs of our constituents,” he stated further.
Both Lopez and Dizon assured the agency’s full cooperation to filter out questionable items before budget debates reach the plenary.
Additionally, Ejercito aims to institutionalize these reforms through Senate Bill No. 2, also known as the proposed Masterplan for Infrastructure and National Development (MIND) Act, to secure long-term infrastructure planning regardless of leadership changes.