Senator Bam Aquino on Thursday pressed the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on the flow of project funds and how allocations to proponents were handled, raising concerns over transparency and potential overpricing.
In his interpellation, Aquino focused on whether all projects—from classrooms to flood control measures—required a percentage for proponents.
Henry Alcantara, the dismissed DPWH Bulacan district engineer, confirmed that allocations were standard across projects, though congressional projects were coordinated directly with contractors.
Alcantara said his office only managed special allocations approved by former DPWH Undersecretary for Operations Roberto Bernardo and other officials and did not directly provide funds to politicians, leaving some transactions outside his knowledge.
Aquino sought clarification on whether local government units could receive 100 percent of project funds without deductions, and Alcantara explained that the office still retained a standard allocation.
“For roads and buildings, it’s around six percent. Sometimes there’s a small discount. It depends on the contractor,” he said.
The senator then turned to the Construction Materials Price Data (CMPD), asking DPWH Director Allan Borromeo how material prices were determined and why some estimates exceeded local hardware costs.
“It controls the prices of the construction materials we use. All of these were previously under the authority of CMPD in the regional and district implementing offices, but now we have returned it to the central office to control the prices,” he said.
Borromeo acknowledged that freight and hauling fees, especially in island provinces, sometimes inflated costs, but promised a new CMPD would be released next week and published online to allow public monitoring.
Aquino stressed that government bulk purchases should remain lower than commercial rates and that hauling adjustments should not exceed 20–30 percent, while also raising concerns about inflated project units, noting that classrooms in previous projects had cost P3.7 million each.
Borromeo said the Bureau of Design provides standard plans and audits projects to ensure the number of units and material quantities are accurate, while Alcantara confirmed that his office generally follows CMPD figures from regional offices and occasionally conducts independent price checks.
Aquino pointed out that centralizing CMPD oversight and auditing project designs would be reviewed in the upcoming DPWH budget hearing and potentially in the Blue Ribbon Committee inquiry, signaling a renewed push for accountability and proper cost monitoring.
“We really need to, we might as well start from zero, because the level of corruption we are seeing is truly very high,” the senator said.
