Note: This report is based on the “Summary Notes and Datasets on DPWH NEP vis GAA, 2022-2025” that R2KRN submitted in response to a request of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure on 10 November 2025.
HOW did Congress mangle, distort, and play around with the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) from 2022 to 2025?
How did legislators invade the budget with their “insertions” and in what purses of the DPWH budget?
The numbers offer a road map to possible answers. Over the last four years, Congress had fiddled with the DPWH budget in slash-and-burn fashion: It added a composite total of PhP662.73 billion in the DPWH budget that could accommodate the legislators’ “insertions,” but also arbitrarily cut the same amount from expenditure that could not.
The National Expenditure Program (NEP) is the proposed national budget prepared by the Executive Branch through the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and submitted to Congress for review and approval.
The General Appropriations Act (GAA) is the approved national budget enacted by Congress (House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Congress Bicameral Conference Committee). The final enrolled bill is then signed by the President, serving as the government’s legal basis for implementing programs, projects, and activities for the fiscal year.
- The Difference is the gap between the NEP and GAA. A positive value means the GAA is higher than the NEP, while a negative value means it is lower.
Formula: Difference = GAA – NEP
- % Variance shows how much the GAA increased or decreased compared to the NEP, expressed in percentage.
Formula: % Variance = (Difference/NEP) x 100
Article VI Section 25 (1) of the Constitution prohibits Congress from increasing the total appropriations recommended by the President. This limitation serves as a safeguard against runaway spending and protects the overall fiscal balance of the government. However, within the proposed budget, Congress may reduce, reallocate, or realign budget items. Thus, certain items may be increased, such as the DPWH items that were increased, and these would have been sourced from the reduction in other items.
Dagdag-bawas from NEP to GAA
Year on year, the DPWH budget has shown marked increase and decrease for nearly the same budget categories.
From NEP to GAA, Congress allocated big increases in the DPWH budget from 2022 to 2025 for two expenditure items under the agency’s “Operations” budget: Asset Privatization and Convergence and Special Support Program.
From NEP to GAA, Congress imposed big decreases in the DPWH budget from 2022 to 2025 for these items: General Administration and Support; Support to Operations; and under “Operations,” Bridge Program, Local Program, Locally-Funded Projects, and Network Development Program.
From NEP to GAA, the Flood Management Program was decreased in 2022 and 2025 but also had increases in 2023 and 2024. This resulted in a significant net increase over the four-year period.
Similarly, from NEP to GAA, the DPWH budget from 2022 to 2025 for Foreign-Assisted Projects is interesting:
- Zero in 2022 in both NEP and GAA;
- Zero in the NEP but PhP7.94 billion in 2023 GAA;
- Zero again in 2024 in both NEP and GAA; and,
- PhP23 billion in 2025 NEP but zero in 2025 GAA.
Read the full report: Data Reveal from 2022 to 2025 Congress dagdag-bawas: PhP663B in DPWH budget for ‘insertions’?