MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants to recover funds for the foreign-assisted projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), saying his administration must prioritize programs that can change people's lives.

DPWH officials met with Marcos Jr. in Malacañang on Thursday for the discussion of the agency's budget review under 2025 national budget as per General Appropriations Act.

“Because we asked for PhP70 billion and they [lawmakers] gave us PhP23 billion,” Marcos Jr. said.

The Palace said Congress has "substantially cut" appropriations for programs, activities, and projects (PAPs) of DPWH in the 2025 national budget. 

DPWH: 70% of 21,000 projects completed in 2024

The reductions were said to affect payments of right-of-way (ROW), contractual obligations, value added tax and other taxes, pre-feasibility study and feasibilit study, primary and detailed engineering. public-private partnership strategic support fund, and the government's KAlsada TUngo sa PAliparan, Riles, at DaungAN (KATUPARAN) Program. 

Budget was also reduced for the department'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 the cuts, 17.2% or P1,088.80 billion of the P6.326 trillion-worth signed GAA is DPWH's budget this year.

Marcos Jr. said he wanted DPWH to focus on the "maintenance of agency projects, feasibility studies, and right of way issues."

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In his speech at the signing of the national budget, the president mentioned that he vetoed P194 billion worth of line items that don't align with the government's development plan, including allocations for some projects of DPWH.

Among the DPWH programs vetoed by Marcos Jr. are some flood control projects like the proposed P300 million rehabilitation along Lower Marikina River, P400 million rehabilitation along Manggahan Floodway Channel in the National Capital Region, as well as the proposed construction of several flood and water resource management structures in Bicol.

Department of Budget and Management Undersecretary Goddess Hope Libiran explained last December that these were found not implementation ready, or have ambiguous details.