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Lacson scrutinizes DPWH budget: Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson scrutinizes the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Tuesday, October 19, 2021. “The DPWH proposal under the National Expenditure Program (NEP) seems to be compliant to the Mandanas-Garcia ruling but upon closer scrutiny, this does not seem to be so,” Lacson said during the virtual Finance Subcommittee A hearing on the proposed P686 billion budget of the DPWH and its attached agencies for next year. While DPWH’s allocation for local programs has dropped by 88.9 percent from P280.6 billion in 2021 to P31.2 billion for 2022, Lacson said the agency’s convergence and special support projects are significantly high (P206.5 billion) for next year. As a result, he said, the decrease in DPWH’s budget for 2022 is merely 5.8 percent. “My question is this, what kind of projects will be funded under the convergence and special support program? Can you more or less guarantee that this program will not contain any local projects which are covered by the LGU devolved programs?” Lacson asked. Public Works Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral said DPWH has highly technical projects that will involve multiple competencies. She said the agency is also an effective partner in ensuring the regional and local distribution of their convergence projects. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)