President Marcos has asked the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to focus on projects that will positively change people's lives following the substantial cut in the appropriations for its programs, activities, and projects (PAPs) in the 2025 national budget.

Marcos said this as he met DPWH officials in Malacañan on Thursday, Jan. 16, to discuss the agency’s budget review under the Fiscal Year 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

In his remarks, the President emphasized that the focus now should be on projects that "will make a difference to people’s lives."

"Because we asked for P70 billion and they (lawmakers) gave us P23 billion," he explained.

Marcos also wanted the DPWH to prioritize maintaining agency projects, feasibility studies, and right-of-way issues.

Under the 2025 GAA, budget reductions in the DPWH’s PAPs included payments for right-of-way (ROW), contractual obligations, Value Added Tax, and other taxes; pre-feasibility study (FS), feasibility study, and primary and detailed engineering; public-private partnership strategic support fund; and the KAlsada TUngo sa PAliparan, Riles, at DaungAN (KATUPARAN) Program.

The outlay was also reduced for the agency’s Bridge Program, Network Development Program, Tourism Road Infrastructure Program (TRIP), Roads Leveraging Linkages of Industry and Trade (ROLL-IT) Program, and foreign-assisted projects.

Despite this, the budget of the DPWH increased by P188.80 billion, or 20.98 percent from the proposed P900 billion in the FY 2025 National Expenditure Program to P1,088.80 billion in the FY 2025 GAA.