Senators Loren Legarda and Bam Aquino on Monday, Oct. 20 pressed the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to implement an across-the-board reduction of 20 to 30 percent in its infrastructure line items, as they cited recent corruption scandals that revealed systemic overpricing of materials and projects.

DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon delivers remarks after the flag-raising ceremony at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) head office in Manila on October 20, 2025. (Mark Balmores)

During the Senate deliberations on the DPWH’s proposed 2026 budget, Legarda said the government should not wait until 2027 to act on the overpricing issue, as she stressed that taxpayers’ money was being wasted on inflated costs.

“In light of the systemic overpricing revealed by recent corruption scandals, would the good secretary and his new team consider it reasonable and technically sound to implement an across-the-board reduction, say of 25 to 30 percent, on all DPWH infrastructure line items as a temporary corrective measure so that in 2027, you can be more scientific?” Legarda asked DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon.

Legarda pointed out that previous DPWH officials had admitted to overpricing that reached up to 50 percent in some projects.

“When you think about it, people pay taxes. Taxpayers’ money goes to infrastructure and if this 50 percent is an overprice or even a 25, how can we in conscience work on the budget or affix our signatures for an overpriced budget?” she said.

“Kung sasabihin natin, ‘E hindi namin ginawa yan eh, 2027 pa ito’ — hindi ko po malalagdaan ang aking pirma sa 2026 Genaral Appropriations Act kung hindi po natin binaba ang presyo ng line items. So yung across the board, magandang pahiwatig po ito na tayo ay seryoso sa pagreporma sa ating budgetary process (If we say, ‘We didn’t do that, that will be for 2027,’ I will not be able to affix my signature to the 2026 GAA if we do not lower the prices of the line items. So this across-the-board measure is a good indication that we are serious about reforming our budgetary process),”Legarda noted.

In response, Dizon acknowledged that there were indeed overpriced materials and project costs in the agency’s regional offices, but said the extent of the overpricing varied across the country.

Dizon explained that material prices differ across regions due to logistics and supply variations. “Iba ang presyo sa NCR, iba ang presyo sa Cebu, iba ang presyo sa Palawan, iba ang presyo sa Mindoro. Pero clearly po merong overprice (Prices are different in NCR, different in Cebu, different in Palawan, and different in Mindoro. But clearly, there is overpricing),” he said.

“So ang ginagawa po namin ngayon, ay iniisa-isa po — hinihimay-himay po yan isa-isa kada rehiyon kung ano ang overpriced (So what we are doing now is going through each one— examining them one by one in every region to determine which items are overpriced),” he added.

According to Dizon, the department’s initial studies have shown that some items were “very overpriced,” with markups exceeding 20 percent in several regions and even higher in some areas.

Dizon assured the Senate that the DPWH was already working to address the issue and that reforms would not wait until the 2027 budget cycle.

“We never said that we will only implement this for 2027. In fact, in the next few weeks, we will be announcing a recommendation already,” he added. He stated that they would announce this once ready.

“This must be applied immediately, not just moving forward but must be applied immediately. Especially for those projects that are still ongoing procurement,” Dizon said.

Dizon said his team, which has been in the department for just over a month, has already made “immense progress” in identifying overpricing issues and will soon come out with region-specific adjustments.

“I think very soon we will be coming out with a — not just an across-the-board, but a region-by-region adjustment in the cost of materials throughout the country,” he told the senators.

Senator Bam Aquino backed Legarda’s proposal, and said that an across-the-board reduction of at least 20 percent in the DPWH’s budget might be warranted if the department fails to show sufficient progress in addressing overpricing.

He reminded Dizon that the Senate had already raised the same concern in August to the latter's predecessor, former DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan. 

“Sabi ko, sir, may chance kayo to resubmit ang mga projects, iresubmit niyo ang mga presyo at mga proyekto. Yung mga proyektong alanganin tanggalin niyo, yung mga proyektong overpriced ayusin niyo and we will be very open to accepting a resubmitted budget detailing all the projects that you want to do (I told him, sir, you have the chance to resubmit the projects, resubmit the prices, and the project list. Remove the questionable projects, fix the overpriced ones, and we will be very open to accepting a resubmitted budget detailing all the projects that you want to implement)," Aquino said

He emphasized that removing “fat” from the budget — referring to allocations used for corruption or unnecessary expenses — was essential to restoring public trust.

“Tanggalin natin yan, let’s go for the real price of these projects dahil yun po ang nararapat sa taumbayan (Let’s remove those and go for the real price of these projects because that is what the public truly deserves),” he added.

Dizon, for his part, expressed full support for the Senate’s initiative to ensure transparency and proper use of funds. “We fully support the efforts of the Senate to do that,” he said.

Aquino concluded by reiterating that lawmakers could not, in good conscience, approve an overpriced budget.