The district engineering office serving Bohol’s 1st District, represented by Rep. John Geesnell “Baba” Yap, is among those with the most Department of Public Works and Highways projects in the House-approved 2027 budget bill that have no matching line in the National Expenditure Program, according to a ranking by the budget transparency group BetterGov.PH.
The group’s analysis of House Bill 10858 found 107 such projects under the Bohol 1st District Engineering Office.
BetterGov.PH calls them “added” projects, identified by comparing the House bill with the NEP submitted by the executive branch. It said the figures belong to DPWH district offices, not individual lawmakers, and that the comparison is not evidence of wrongdoing.
Topping the list is the Ilocos Norte 1st District Engineering Office, serving the district represented by House Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, with 405 projects worth P4.37 billion pesos.
The South Cotabato 2nd District Engineering Office, shared by Reps. Ferdinand Hernandez and Dibu Tuan, ranked second with 257 projects worth P1.64 billion pesos.
The Isabela 4th District Engineering Office, shared by Rep. Joseph Tan and House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III, was third with 147 projects valued at P1.68 billion pesos.
Other offices high on the list included those tied to Cavite’s 1st District, with 112 projects, and Nueva Ecija’s 1st District, shared by Appropriations Committee Chair Mikaela Angela Suansing and Rep. Mario “Kokoy” Salvador, with 107.
BetterGov.PH’s leaderboard covers the top entries among 161 DPWH district offices. Another 940 added projects, worth P97.66 billion pesos, fall under the DPWH central office, regional offices or no specific district office.
The ranking is part of wider scrutiny of the House version of the P7.2 trillion-peso 2027 national budget. The House approved the measure on third and final reading in mid-October.
Watchdog groups, including the People’s Budget Coalition, which works with BetterGov.PH, have reported that the House inserted roughly 6,200 to more than 7,000 infrastructure projects that lack matching NEP lines or publicly available project documents.
DPWH accounts for most of them, often multipurpose buildings and access roads, valued at between P170 billion and P190 billion pesos.
Minority lawmakers and civil society groups have said the changes reduce transparency and shift funds toward local projects while cutting allocations for some foreign-assisted flagship infrastructure.
House leaders have defended the amendments as based on validated agency proposals and as necessary specifications of previously lumped allocations.
The bill now goes to the Senate for review.
BetterGov.PH and the People’s Budget Coalition have published searchable trackers and downloadable lists of the inserted and adjusted projects across DPWH, farm-to-market roads, health facilities and irrigation programs.