Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

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Marilyn Cahatol

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175643763155820250829030836_109f1494abe50c74b6fe0e6f0e5c3bd5209c8d789d127aaae44f4a45a264ed09.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Sen. Win Gatchalian on August 1, 2023. Bibo Nueva España, Senate PRIB/File</span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian on Friday said that the Senate has found and is investigating &quot;questionable items&quot; in the proposed 2026 budget, particularly in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) section of the spending plan.</p><p>&quot;We did see some questionable items in the budget and we saw some figures that are also questionable. We&#x27;re now going through the DPWH annex and we&#x27;re going through the projects one by one, including roads, infrastructure projects. We&#x27;re investigating those questionable projects,” he told ANC. </p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/2025/8/28/bir-begins-lifestyle-check-on-contractors-who-flaunt-lavish-assets-to-look-into-gov-t-officials-1501">BIR begins lifestyle check on contractors who ‘flaunt’ lavish assets, to look into gov’t officials next<br/></a></div><p>Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance, said he also created an independent group that will help him scrutinize the 4,000 flood control projects included in the National Expenditure Program for 2026.</p><p>“The point here is we don’t want ghost projects to happen again in 2026. If you include budgets in 2026 for flood control without analyzing each and every project and also reforming the process, then corruption will just continue in 2026,” he said.</p><p>The Senate budget transparency portal will also go live on Monday, the same day as the upper chamber opens its budget deliberations, said Gatchalian.</p><p>He noted that the portal will store all documents pertinent to budget deliberations, including its livestreams, journals, and committee reports and annexes containing the projects under the DPWH.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/8/27/palace-marcos-still-trusts-dpwh-chief-1640">Palace: Marcos still trusts DPWH chief<br/></a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>SENATE WANTS MORE DETAILS ON NEXT BUDGET PROPOSAL</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>To prevent corruption, Gatchalian said the Senate wants a more detailed proposal for next year&#x27;s budget, including the engineering, feasibility study, and other important details.</p><p>He said items, especially infrastructure projects, should include the coordinates and other details aside from the barangay, municipality and province, to save time from asking DPWH.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/8/24/vico-sotto-seeks-more-info-on-dpwh-flood-control-projects-in-pasig-2258">Vico Sotto says &#x27;Sumbong sa Pangulo&#x27; helpful, but needs more info on DPWH flood control projects in Pasig City</a></div><p>“At the end of the day we are putting money so that the projects would be effective and felt by the people. But without all of these details, the project is just pure number,” he said.</p><p>He added that the Senate also eyes to suggest to DPWH to look at the process of accrediting contractors.</p><p>According to the senator, DPWH only looks at the net financial contracting capacity and “very broad general items” like the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) license, but not at the capitalization and capabilities of the contractors.</p><p>“Some of these contractors have questionable capital. And they would claim they are Triple A (AAA) or Quadruple A (AAAA), but their capital is not adequate enough to secure multi-billion projects. And this actually raises a red flag,” said Gatchalian.</p><p>He added that subcontracting is also an issue, as “it defeats the purpose of rating the contractor.”</p><p>“It is circumventing the rating process. We have to look at that practice because it is basically gaming the system, and that is not what we want to happen in building the infrastructure projects,” he said.</p><p>The Department of Trade and Industry, which supervises PCAB, <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/8/29/dti-looking-into-contractor-accreditation-for-sale-allegation-0906">said </a>that it is now investigating the agency&#x27;s alleged &quot;selling&quot; of accreditation to contractors of government projects. </p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/8/29/may-makukulong-dahil-sa-ghost-projects-gatchalian-0859">May makukulong dahil sa ghost projects - Gatchalian</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>‘EDUCATION GETS MORE BUDGET IF DPWH DOES NOT IMPROVE’</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>The Committee on Finance chair said that the Senate could move P270 billion of budget from DPWH to the Department of Education (DepEd) if the infrastructure agency fails to improve its processes.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/8/24/lawmaker-no-sense-to-allot-zero-budget-for-flood-mitigation-in-2026-1613">Lawmaker: No sense to allot &#x27;zero budget&#x27; for flood mitigation in 2026</a></div><p>“My initial thought is that if DPWH will not improve their process and will not assure the public that the flood control projects are corruption-free this 2026, we wouldn’t mind moving P270 billion to education and build more classrooms, hire more teacher, teacher aids so that our teachers could have support,” he said.</p><p>Gatchalian noted that the education budget still needs P55 billion to hit 4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, which is the globally recognized standard for minimum spending on education.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/8/23/education-allocation-in-proposed-budget-falls-short-of-unesco-standard-business-group-1214">Education allocation in proposed budget &#x27;falls short of UNESCO standard&#x27; — business group</a></div><p>“We don’t want to repeat corruption in 2026 by allowing funding for flood control and other projects. We are also allowing corruption to happen if we do not reform the process,” he said.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div><br/></div><div style="text-align:center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wZf-slwqMDQ?si=UwswffJRKE7byEKa" title="YouTube video player" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><br/></div>

<p>Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said that the Senate has found and is investigating "questionable items" in the proposed 2026 budget, particularly in the DPWH section of the spending plan.</p>

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said that the Senate has found and is investigating "questionable items" in the proposed 2026 budget, particularly in the DPWH section of the spending plan.

Gatchalian flags 'questionable items' in proposed 2026 budget

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Gatchalian flags 'questionable items' in proposed 2026 budget

Marilyn Cahatol,

ABS-CBN News

Published Aug 29, 2025 11:32 AM PHT

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Sherwin Gatchalian

2026 budget

DPWH

flood control projects

Senate

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