Marcos aims to recover budget for foreign-aided projects of DPWH

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday expressed intention to recover funds for foreign-assisted projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said.

Marcos met with officials from the department in Malacañang to discuss the result of the agency’s budget review under the Fiscal Year 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) vis-à-vis the FY 2025 National Expenditure Program.

“Because we asked for PhP70 billion and they (lawmakers) gave us PhP23 billion,” the president said as quoted in the PCO statement.

READ: DepEd, DPWH get highest 2025 budget allocation

He added that the focus should be on projects that “will make a difference to people’s lives,” the PCO said.

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The PCO further said that Marcos wanted the DPWH to focus on the maintenance of agency projects, feasibility studies, and right-of-way issues.

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Under the 2025 GAA, budget reductions in the DPWH’s programs, activities, and projects included payments of right-of-way; contractual obligations, value-added tax, and other taxes; pre-feasibility study, feasibility study, and primary and detailed engineering; public-private partnership strategic support fund; and KAlsada TUngo sa PAliparan, Riles, at DaungAN Program.

The outlay was also reduced for the agency’s Bridge Program, Network Development Program, Tourism Road Infrastructure Program, Roads Leveraging Linkages of Industry and Trade (ROLL-IT) Program, and foreign-assisted projects.

Despite the cut, the total budget of the DPWH increased by PP188.80 billion, or 20.98 percent, from the proposed PP900 billion in the FY 2025 National Expenditure Program to PhP1,088.80 billion in the FY 2025 GAA.