00:00Work in hashing over the details of the 6.7 trillion 2026 General Appropriations Bill
00:05or proposed national budget has begun in the Senate.
00:09And the first allocation to go under lawmakers' microscopes and magnifying glasses
00:14is the Public Works and Highways outlay for next year.
00:18Our Luisa Erispe has more.
00:21The Senate plenary has started its deliberations for the 6.793 trillion pesos budget for 2026.
00:30During the debates, the allocated funds for the Department of Public Works and Highways
00:34remained the pressing topic between legislators.
00:37But according to Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, Committee on Finance Chairman
00:41and sponsor of the 2026 General Appropriations Bill at the Senate,
00:46they can assure a clean version of the DPWH budget in the Senate.
00:51As a matter of fact, the budget decreased 4 billion pesos after the removal of duplicate projects.
00:57We also removed yung mga doble, yung mga duplicate projects,
01:01projects that appeared, let's say, in 2024 GA-A, 2025 GA-A, then reappeared in 2026.
01:10We removed all of those.
01:12And that amounted to about 4 billion pesos, Mr. President.
01:16So, in other words, this list of DPWH projects are vetted properly.
01:21With this, the budget for infrastructure projects is assured to be properly vetted.
01:27Since nawala na po yung flood control projects, nawala na rin po yung issue of not being shovel ready.
01:37Because yung flood control, that's the component or that's the group that is actually problematic.
01:48But Senator Loren Legarda questioned if the $255 billion budget for flood control was removed from the bill.
01:56Where was this amount pre-aligned?
01:59The Chilean answered, these were allocated to several agencies of the government.
02:03The net was cut by $250 billion, $255 billion to be exact, by the House of Representatives.
02:14And it was reflected in the General Appropriations Bill.
02:18And the $255 billion was distributed in various departments.
02:24On the $255 billion, according to Gatchalian, $28 billion was re-aligned to the Department of Agriculture,
02:31$29 billion to the Department of Education, $31 billion to the Department of Health,
02:36$13 billion for the Labor Department, and $36 billion for the DSWD.
02:41A large amount was also allocated to fill health in the amount of 60 billion pesos.
02:47But Senator Jinggoy Estrada has raised another issue with regards to flood control project.
02:52He hopes that for the next budget season, flood control projects should be vetted first by local government units
02:59before inclusion in the National Expenditure Program.
03:02There was also a stern statement alleging the engineers of the DPWH were the real masterminds behind ghost projects.
03:09Kung magkakaroon ba ng partisipasyon ang Regional Development Council dito sa mga flood control projects.
03:16Maraming mga amendments sa mga kongresista, mga senador ng mga flood control projects,
03:22dapat pala nagkaroon ng partisipasyon ang Regional Development Councils
03:26para hindi na tayo nagkakaroon na ganito klaseng problema.
03:29Dahil sino ba ang mga mastermind ng mga ghost projects?
03:32Hindi ba yung mga engineers dyan sa mga DPWH?
03:34Hindi naman mga senador, hindi naman mga kongresman eh.
03:36Gatchalian agrees with Estrada's statement.
03:39The projects should be vetted first by the LGUs.
03:43Mas maganda po talaga dumadaan sa Regional Development Council.
03:47Alam nyo naman, bilang dating mayor, meron tayong mga City Development Council,
03:51Provincial Development Council, kahit man lang dumaan doon para at least vetted and coordinated yung project.
03:58Luisa Erispe from the National TV Network for a new and better Philippines.
