THE House Committee on Appropriations yesterday granted the request of Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon that he be given more time to submit the corrected proposed budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for 2026.
House leaders have always said that the department’s proposed budget, as reflected in the National Expenditure Program (NEP), was riddled with “insertions” and errors.
The panel chaired by Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Suansing approved the motions of Reps. Mauricio Domogan of Baguio City and Rommel Angara of Aurora to extend the deadline from September 12 to September 15.
The committee also approved Angara’s motion to reschedule the committee deliberations on the DPWH’s proposed P881 billion budget for next year from September 17 from September 16.
“It will be too short of a time for members of the House of Representatives to peruse and review the submission of the DPWH that will be submitted on September 15 if we would schedule the hearing one day after. To allow members to scrutinize the DPWH budget for 2026, it would be more prudent for the committee to add an additional day,” Suansing said.
House party leaders led by Deputy Speaker Ronaldo last week blamed the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and other departments or the alleged insertions and errors in the NEP for 2026, saying it was unfair that only congressmen have always been blamed for it when there are insertions made at the level of the Executive branch, a co-equal branch of the Legislative.
Puno’s group earlier said their group’s review uncovered “serious and systemic” anomalies in the preparation of the 2026 NEP, particularly in the budget proposals of the DPWH, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Philippine National Police (PNP), and Department of Agriculture (DA).
The group however aborted the plan after Speaker Martin Romualdez urged them to wait until after Dizon and Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman correct the errors.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, in a statement last Saturday, lashed at lawmakers for the planned return and told them to “clean their House first.”
The issue fizzled out after the appropriations panel quickly approved the Office of the President’s P27.362 billion budget for 2026 citing parliamentary courtesy to the Executive.
Parañaque Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan vowed to open his districts’ public works projects to scrutiny and give Dizon a “free hand” in reviewing all of the projects.
“I, as the representative of the second district of Parañaque, I’m giving you a free hand to review all the projects in my district. I leave it all up to you. If you think the project is feasible for our area, implement it. Remove or add what you think will help our masterplan that is designed to ease the problems of our country. Do it,” he said.
