ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Budget cut forces DPWH to implement cost-saving measures

Budget cut forces DPWH to implement cost-saving measures

Published Jan 18, 2022 03:02 pm

Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Roger G. Mercado has placed the overall supervision and control of the department's planning service under the control of his office as a cost-saving measures following a huge budget cut it suffered from the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

According to Mercado, the budget cut affected the fund for non-infrastructure and routine maintenance of national roads and bridges, as well as road safety facilities of the department.

Under the Department Order 2, Mercado relieved DPWH Engineer Maria Catalina E. Cabral from her assignment as Undersecretary for Planning Service, which is responsible for the formulation of the Annual Infrastructure Program for presentation to and approval of Congress.

Cabral, however, retains her function as Undersecretary Public-Private Partnership Service (PPPS).

The big cut in the budget of DPWH infrastructure comes in the core services of the 2022 National Expenditure Program (NEP), which was moved and channeled to the Convergence and Special Support Program (CSSP), which received ₱352.8 billion appropriations – or an increase of ₱146.3 Billion in 2022 NEP for a whopping 46 percent of the total DPWH ₱767 Billion infrastructure budget in the 2022 national budget.

The CSSP consists mostly of Local Projects to be transferred to the Local Government Units in the light of the LGU Code and Supreme Court ruling on the Mandanas case.

The budget for the asset preservation of national roads was also more than doubled to ₱117.5 Billion in the 2022 GAA compared with the original submitted NEP of ₱63.3 Billion.

Faced with great challenges arising from unbalanced allocation to prioritize the funding of local projects are the implementation of President Duterte’s flagship infrastructure projects under the ‘Build Build Build’ program – 40 of which are under the Official Development Assistance and four are purely locally funded projects.

From the 2022 NEP of ₱55.231 billion for flagship projects, the budget dropped to just ₱8.941 billion in the 2022 GAA compared to the higher share of ₱15.43 billion in GAA for Local Programs.

The budget for flagship projects is not enough to sustain the implementation of projects for the year, and it will have impact on additional funds for late payments and price escalations and incur commitment fees and other charges.

Projects with completed detailed engineering design and ready for bidding will forgo procurement due to limited resources to pay not even the claims for advance payment.

Prior to the passage of the budget in 2019, several DPWH staff in the Planning Service were implicated over alleged illegal insertion of projects in the budget that forced Congress to conduct an investigation and eventually delayed deliberations on the 2019 budget, prompting government to work on a reenacted 2018 budget until April 2019.

Under the National Budget Call for 2023 thru National Budget Memorandum Circular No. 142 dated January 12, 2022, national government agencies like the DPWH shall now focus on national programs and should refrain from duplicating the direct delivery of devolved functions and services with the LGUs.

Related Tags

President Duterte Department of Public Works and Highways DPWH Secretary Roger G. Mercado build build build
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.