Batangas 1st District Rep. Leandro Leviste said on Saturday, November 15, that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) should be given no budget at all for 2026, arguing that corruption within the agency has become too entrenched to fix.
During an interview on DZRH News program Special on Saturday, Leviste said recent testimonies from district engineers and former DPWH officials reinforced his view that the agency’s budget should be drastically cut or completely removed.
“Mas mabuting huwag na lang bigyan ng budget ang DPWH. Last time, ang sinabi ko, dapat nating bawasan ang mga proyekto ng DPWH. Pero, ang lumabas nga sa mga testimonies ng mga district engineers, ang lahat ng mga proyekto ay parang binebenta lang ng officials sa contractors,” Leviste said.
The Batangas lawmaker’s remarks came a day after a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing where former DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo alleged “top-to-bottom” corruption inside the department.
“Based on current setup, each and every DPWH official is buffetted with various avenues of corrupt acts and practices. These include high-ranking members of the department such as secretary, undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, regional directors, Bids and Award Committee members, engineers, inspectors and all the way down to laborers,” Bernardo said.
Aseked during the DZRH interview on whether he would push this proposal within Congress, Leviste did not directly commit to a plenary move but noted that new revelations have made him more outspoken about views he had previously raised.
According to Leviste, district engineers told congressional hearings that DPWH projects were essentially being “sold” to contractors, with irregularities involving officials at various levels.
“Lahat ng mga proyekto ay parang binebenta lang ng mga opisyal sa mga kontraktor at napakahirap talagang i-reform ang sistemang ito,” he said.
He added that some sectors have even suggested abolishing the agency, and that withholding its budget would achieve a similar effect.
Leviste argued that infrastructure implementation could be devolved to local governments.
While acknowledging that not all local governments are perfect, the lawmaker noted that LGUs tend to produce better outcomes in his own district.
“Mas maganda ang kalidad ng gawa ng mga local governments kaysa sa DPWH,” he said.
He also questioned whether current levels of infrastructure spending still benefit the economy, pointing to testimony that only “35% to 50%” of project funds actually go to construction.
Overpricing, he said, undermines the traditional multiplier effect used to justify public works.
“Kung napaka-overpriced nga, hindi multiplication ang effect, baka division pa,” he said.
Leviste stressed that he supports infrastructure investment in principle and cited foreign-assisted DPWH projects as examples of better planning and contractor performance.
The problem, he said, lies in almost all of locally implemented projects, which hearings have linked to questionable bidding processes and substandard output.
Given current revenue pressures, he said cutting or removing DPWH’s 2026 allocation could be a legitimate source of budgetary savings.
During Friday’s Blue Ribbon hearing, former Undersecretary Bernardo alleged that corruption within DPWH affects officials from secretaries and undersecretaries down to inspectors and laborers.
With budget deliberations for 2026 still underway, Leviste said lawmakers must decide whether it is still appropriate to fund an agency repeatedly linked to systemic wrongdoing.
“Dapat gawing mas drastic ang solusyon dito,” he said.
