House increases DPWH budget for Sandro Marcos’ district by P4.3B – watchdog

The House-approved 2027 spending bill greatly increased public-works funding assigned to Ilocos Norte’s 1st District. The district’s project list from the Department of Public Works and Highways rose to P4.74 billion. This matters because the increase was far larger than the amount originally proposed by the executive branch.

The National Expenditure Program initially set aside P369 million for the district. The House version added P4.38 billion, producing the P4.74-billion total. BetterGov.ph identified the change by comparing DPWH project lists in the executive proposal with those in the House General Appropriations Bill.

The increase is not final. The Senate can approve or reject House amendments, and differences will go to a bicameral conference committee. The article also notes that the data does not prove any representative requested, sponsored, or controlled particular projects.

The Department of Public Works and Highways, or DPWH, is the government agency named in the article’s project lists. Those lists identify proposed public-works projects and their assigned district engineering offices. The General Appropriations Bill, or GAB, is the spending bill produced by Congress for the coming year.

The connection is practical: the article compares DPWH project lists in the executive branch’s National Expenditure Program with the lists in the House-approved GAB. That comparison shows where the House changed proposed public-works funding. For Ilocos Norte’s 1st District, the DPWH project-list total rose from P369 million to P4.74 billion.

The House version is not yet the final budget. The Senate may accept or reject the House’s changes. If the chambers pass different bills, their differences are reconciled in a bicameral conference committee before the budget process is completed.

The biggest change was in Ilocos Norte’s 1st District. Its proposed public-works allocation increased from P369 million in the National Expenditure Program to P4.74 billion in the House version. The difference was P4.38 billion. The House version therefore placed more than twelve times the original amount in the district’s DPWH project lists.

The gap was much larger than increases elsewhere. Davao de Oro’s 2nd District ranked second, with a P1.68-billion increase. Misamis Occidental’s 2nd District ranked third, with a P1.65-billion increase. Other districts connected with senior House officials also appeared among the ten largest increases.

Those figures remain subject to change because the Senate can approve or reject the House amendments. The chambers must reconcile any different budget versions through a bicameral conference committee. The comparison shows scale, but the article warns it does not prove wrongdoing or personal control of projects.

The National Expenditure Program, or NEP, represents the executive branch’s proposed national spending plan. The article calls it the President’s budget because the executive submits it annually to Congress. It is the starting point for lawmakers’ consideration of government spending.

The House is constitutionally mandated to come up with an appropriations bill. That authority allows it to amend the President’s proposal, including changing public-works allocations. In this case, House changes raised Ilocos Norte’s 1st District project-list total from P369 million in the NEP to P4.74 billion in the House General Appropriations Bill.

The House’s version is still part of the legislative process, not the final result described in the article. The Senate may approve or reject its amendments. If the two chambers pass different budget bills, a bicameral conference committee will reconcile their differences.

The central concern is transparency. Ken Abante of the People’s Budget Coalition said the House inserted nearly 7,000 projects worth P190 billion without published project attachments. The article says many involve multi-purpose buildings. Missing documents make it difficult to check the projects’ details during budget review.

Abante argued that projects without published documents should be removed and that the Senate should veto them. Public records would help reviewers identify each project and assess the changes against the original proposal. Without them, the scale and purpose of the additions are harder to scrutinize.

The issue could affect the next stage of the budget process. The Senate may reject the additions or approve them, and disagreements will be handled by a bicameral conference committee. The article does not establish that the undocumented projects are illegal or that any official committed wrongdoing.

The House starts the legislative budget version by creating an appropriations bill and amending the President’s proposal. Its approved version included changed DPWH project-list amounts. The Senate then reviews the House bill and may approve or reject those amendments, including additions that lack published attachments.

If the two chambers pass different budget bills, a bicameral conference committee reconciles their differences. That committee is the mechanism for producing a common version from the House and Senate measures. The article says the changes reported are therefore not yet final.

Budget watchdogs provide outside scrutiny. BetterGov.ph compares the NEP with the House GAB through a transparency portal. The People’s Budget Coalition raised concerns during a Senate hearing about undocumented projects. BetterGov.ph also cautions that its mapping does not prove a representative requested, sponsored, or controlled a project.

The article connects public-works projects to legislative districts through DPWH district engineering offices. A district office may serve a particular district or, in some cases, a district shared by more than one lawmaker. This is why project-list changes can be compared with elected representatives’ constituencies.

BetterGov.ph’s portal maps engineering offices to legislative districts. For example, it identified the office serving Ilocos Norte’s 1st District as having P4.74 billion in House-version projects. The article also lists offices shared by lawmakers, such as those associated with Ferdinand Hernandez, Bojie Dy, and Mika Suansing.

The mapping has limits. BetterGov.ph explicitly says it does not establish that a representative requested, sponsored, or controlled a project. It also does not show that every project lies in every district associated with an office. The budget figures therefore indicate changes in district-office lists, not proven personal involvement.