Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero has filed a bill seeking to ensure that government infrastructure projects are backed by feasibility studies as a way of preventing irregularities and misuse of public funds.

In filing Senate Bill No. 1461 or the proposed Infrastructure Appropriations Integrity Act, Escudero said it is imperative that all infrastructure projects have station numbers, geotagging, geodetic coordinates, and other technology-based methodologies incorporated into it to allow anyone to locate these at any time.

Escudero filed the bill amid the ongoing investigation by the Senate and the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI) on the government’s flood control programs, following the discovery of ghost projects or non-existing projects and substandard construction and materials and overpriced procurement.

“Geotagging is one of the most important mechanisms for us to check the status of a project—whether it is actually being implemented or whether it is just on hold while the government continues to release funds,” Escudero said.

Also, under SB No. 1461, no government infrastructure project should be included in the national budget and implemented unless it has gone through a thorough feasibility study.

The technical and financial bases for the projects, including the detailed unit price analyses, standard cost of materials, and quantity estimates should be properly and accurately documented for the perusal of all, particularly the public.

“This documentation is a requirement and condition sine qua non for inclusion of any infrastructure project in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) and the General Appropriations Act (GAA),” Escudero said.

“All proposed projects must be vetted otherwise it should not receive a single centavo in public funds,” he added.

The bill will also prohibit budget-splitting or the division of the appropriations for infrastructure projects in phases.

“Splitting of government contracts has long been prohibited under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Law,” he pointed out.

“This is to prevent the schemes that are intended to circumvent the law and budget policies in order to facilitate corruption,” the former Senate president said.

Escudero earlier wrote Senate Committee on Finance Chairman Senator Sherwin Gatchalian to adopt the transparency and accountability safeguards contained in SBN 1461 as a general provision in the 2026 national budget or as a special provision under specific agency appropriations.